American spiders and their spinningworkA natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits . s, which were ob-served on the 12th of January, are notagglutinated. They are enveloped in asimple cocoon of cottony tissue, white andopaque; aie placed near the bottom oftlie burrow, and suspended from one ofthe walls by a verj^ short pedicle orstalk. 1 (See Fig. 172.) A large female Tarantula, probablyEurypelma hentzii, or a closely relatedspecies, was sent to me from the WestIndies, and arrived at the Academy dur-ing a prolonged absence.
American spiders and their spinningworkA natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits . s, which were ob-served on the 12th of January, are notagglutinated. They are enveloped in asimple cocoon of cottony tissue, white andopaque; aie placed near the bottom oftlie burrow, and suspended from one ofthe walls by a verj^ short pedicle orstalk. 1 (See Fig. 172.) A large female Tarantula, probablyEurypelma hentzii, or a closely relatedspecies, was sent to me from the WestIndies, and arrived at the Academy dur-ing a prolonged absence. She died be-fore my return, and was preserved inspirits; but afforded me an oj^portunity,wdiich I had long desired, of determining the egg cocoon made by this familyof the Therapliosoidfe. While cleaning out the box in whichshe had been sent I observed a piece of spinningwork within,which proved to be an abandoned cocoon. When inflated itshowed a hollow spheroid composed of thick silken cloth, somewhat soiledon the outside, but within clean and white. It measured two inches alongtlie longer axis and one and one-fourth inch along the shorter one. It. Fii. 172. The burrow of Psalistops melano-phygia, showing the cocoon suspended atthe bottom. (After Simon.) TarantulaCocoon. ^ Simon, Arachnides de Venezuela, page 197, plate 3, Fig. 1. GENEKAL COCOONING HABITS OP SPIDERS. 141 was empty of j^oung, whose first moults, however, were within the cocoon,as were also a few unhutched eggs, which are yellowish spheres three mil-limeters in diameter. Three small openings in the case sliowed where thespiderlings had escaped. Both cocoon and eggs are shown natural size inthe accompanying figure. (Fig. 173.) Tlic interior of this cocoon was without any flossy lining or padding,resembling thus the egg sac of the Lycosidto generally. A curious flapoverlapped the cocoon at one side, whose use I could not conjecture, unlessit may have served to attach the object to the mothers body, or suspendit w
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1890
