. 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. 103. Fi<;.92. Section of Cau- data's snare, showing manner of suspend- ing cocoons. (Nat^ ural size.) lapping one another like tiles. Sometimes nodules of flossy silk, or of silk mixed with the debris of captured and devoured insects, are irrej^ularly interposed between the cocoons. This is, indeed, a fixed and most interesting habit of the species, which will be described in a succe
. 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. 103. Fi<;.92. Section of Cau- data's snare, showing manner of suspend- ing cocoons. (Nat^ ural size.) lapping one another like tiles. Sometimes nodules of flossy silk, or of silk mixed with the debris of captured and devoured insects, are irrej^ularly interposed between the cocoons. This is, indeed, a fixed and most interesting habit of the species, which will be described in a succeeding cha])tor. During a temporary stay in Florida, April, 1886, I found nested upon the porch of Dr. Wittfeld's place, Fairyland, Merrit's Island, on the Indian River a little way below Rockledge, a new spider, which I named Cyr- toi)hora bifurca. Its snare resembles that of Cyclosa caudata. It also resembles that spider in the manner of hanging its cocoon string in the vertical axis of its orb just above the hub. The character of the cocoon, how- ever, differs entirely from that of Caudata. It is, in shape, a somewhat irregular octagon, and is of a dark green color. I have found as many as fourteen cocoons in one string, overlapping one another in the manner of cocoons of the Labyrinth spider, and wliicli may also be seen at times witli the cocoons of Caudata, although for the most part, the latter are arranged at intervals along the string. (See Figs. 96, 97.) The cocoon strings collected varied in the number of cocoons attached thereto, probably ac- cording to the period of advancement in the proc- ess of ovipositing on the part of the mother. Of the specimens collected one string contained fourteen, another twelve, and another ten cocoons. They are bound together, along one side, by con- tinuous series of thick white threads, which ex- tend from the top to the bottom of the string. Each cocoon consists of two parts, which have evidently been fastened together by a selvage.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
