. 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. 182 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWOKK. together. After the eggs are laid, the spider covers them with silk, draw- ing the threads over from one side to the other, fastening tliem to the edges of the weh below. AVhen the covering is complete, she bites off the threads that hold the cocoon to the nest, and finishes off the edges with her jaws. Phidippus galathea (Attus mystaceus Hentz) spins, before laying her eggs, a thick
. 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. 182 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWOKK. together. After the eggs are laid, the spider covers them with silk, draw- ing the threads over from one side to the other, fastening tliem to the edges of the weh below. AVhen the covering is complete, she bites off the threads that hold the cocoon to the nest, and finishes off the edges with her jaws. Phidippus galathea (Attus mystaceus Hentz) spins, before laying her eggs, a thick nest of white silk, usually on the under side of a stone. In this she thickens a circular patch on the side next the stone, and balti- discharges her eggs upward against it. (Fig. 239.) They adhere, and are subsequently covered with white silk, after the manner common to Saltigrades. Mr. Emerton had a female of this species that deposited her eggs in confinement; he records that, "instead of completing the cocoon properly, she ate the eggs immediately after laying them,"^ a breach of maternal fidelity which I believe to be rare among araneads, even when cocooning in the unnatural conditions of a forced imprisonment. The eggs are deposited in a mass, cylindrical, conical, or hemispherical, individuals of which are usually fastened together by a glutinous sub- stance, but sometimes arc deposited loose, so that they roll about _ „ in the hand when the cocoon envelope is cut. We are indebted to Menge for the following interesting observation: After all the eggs are deposited the spider rests for a season, when slie commences to draw threads over the eggs, as if desirous of covering them up; but it soon becomes clear that something else is to follow. After a while she returns to the cocoon and discharges a I. «o„ n,,j- , .u «, , , V clear liquid over the eggs, which is absorbed Fi(i. 239. Phidippus galathea (Walck.) ^ . _ "" ' -^-^^ laying eggs within a si
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
