. American spiders and their spinning work. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits. Spiders. MATERNAL INDUSTRY: COCOONS OF ORBWEAVERS, 105 some cocoons empty, one with spiderlings passed tlie first moult several days, and another with young who had just broken the egg. There was no trace of the bifurcated abdomen upon these younglings. The spider is of a uniform light green color, about the shade of its cocoon. Another Orbweaver that makes several cocoons is Epeira basilica. I am indebted to Dr. George Marx, of Washing
. American spiders and their spinning work. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits. Spiders. MATERNAL INDUSTRY: COCOONS OF ORBWEAVERS, 105 some cocoons empty, one with spiderlings passed tlie first moult several days, and another with young who had just broken the egg. There was no trace of the bifurcated abdomen upon these younglings. The spider is of a uniform light green color, about the shade of its cocoon. Another Orbweaver that makes several cocoons is Epeira basilica. I am indebted to Dr. George Marx, of Washington, for the specimens from which the following studies and drawings have been made, as Cocoon of ^ygH j^g fQj. ^]^g information concerning Basilica's habit of caring „*f, for her eggs. The number of cocoons is five, thus corresponding with that of Labyrinthea, and generally with Caudata. Thej' are round, covered on the outside with gray spinningwork, and united by a cordage so stiff that the series stands out like a stick. They arc attached to a triangular patch of yellowish white silk, which is an expansion of a long, glossy, strong linen like cord, composed of many threads, by which the string of egg balls is suspended. (Fig. 98.) According to Dr. Marx, whose observations were made at Washington, the string is hung just above the centre of Basilica's peculiar domed snare, and wholly or in part within the dome, as represented at Fig. 99. The mother has position beneath her egg bags, back downward, as is the habit of Orbweavers making horizontal snares. > When the cocoon is dissected, it is found to consist, first, of an exterior sac of gray material; within this is next enclosed a round black case (Fig. 100), four or five millimetres in diameter, having a thin shell of remark- able hardness, in this respect resembling the cocoon of Cornigera. When illuminated and examined under the microscope this egg ball is seen to be composed of yellow silken fibre of exceeding finene
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
