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. 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. Fig. IW. Cocoon string of Uloborus; cocoons in the snare. (After Emerton.) its size and the nunibor of eggs that are found therein, one would seem to be sufficient to guarantee tlie continuance of the species. I have no doubt that, as a general rule, Coph- inaria makes but one cocoon, but that there arc exceptions is very certain. Several years ago a clerical friend brought me two cocoons of this species, which had been spun on
. 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. Fig. IW. Cocoon string of Uloborus; cocoons in the snare. (After Emerton.) its size and the nunibor of eggs that are found therein, one would seem to be sufficient to guarantee tlie continuance of the species. I have no doubt that, as a general rule, Coph- inaria makes but one cocoon, but that there arc exceptions is very certain. Several years ago a clerical friend brought me two cocoons of this species, which had been spun on his premises by the same spi- der. Mrs. Mary Treat has discov- ered what appears to her to be a va- riety of Argiope cophinaria, which makes four cocoons, and which she accordingly named Argiope multi- concha. ^ She sent me a string of these cocoons, of which there were four, of the general shape and about the usual size, strung within a few inches of each other. They had been spun against the wall of a kitchen in a house in "Western Missouri. The spider mother was also sent, but the specimen was much dried up, and in such a condition that it could not be very satisfactorily studied. It seemed to differ in no particular from Argiope cophinaria. If it be indeed the same species, what are the pecul- iar circumstances that have caused such a remarkable variation in habit? Is it true that Copliinaria does, more frequently than has been supposed, indulge in the lux- ury of an additional egg case? Two cocoons of this lot were open- ed and found to contain young spi- ders that had hatched, but died within the egg sac. The spider- lings were not counted, but they were very numerous. During the summer of 1888 a female Cophinaria was discovered in the Farm- ers' Market of Philadel- phia upon the meat stall of one of the butchers. She had probably been brought into the market from the country, hid- Double Cocoon- ing Ar- Fig. 105. Uloborus snare and cocoon string on adjoinin
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889