556 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Dec, 



of my captives made the progeny-nest before emergence of the young. 

 As the young emerge the mother builds a network of lines around them, 

 she remaining on the outside of the nest, and increases the number of 

 the lines with the number of the young hatching. In this way the 

 progeny-nest, a real nursery, is gradually built around the spiderlings 

 and the empty cocoon, the mother working on it for as much as three 

 days. In natural conditions such nests are placed generally at a 

 height of about two feet above the ground, rarely as high as four feet , 

 most frequently on a terminal branch of poison-ivy or oak, or the 

 frond of a large fern, the leaves closely spun together to form a pro- 

 tecting and hiding roof over the network of lines below. The mother 

 seems to leave the nest and wander off shortly after she has completed 

 it; thus, on 2 August, I found about forty progeny-nests along a path in 

 the woods, and though fully half of them contained young the mother 

 was on the nest or in near vicinity to it in only two cases — and in these 

 two the young were in process of emergence from the cocoon. In the 

 one case timed the young left the nest on the ninth and tenth day 

 after hatching. 



The Mother's Abstinence from Food. — These relatively large spiders 

 are remarkably timorous, seeming to fear grasshoppers of a size that 

 much smaller spiders will quickly seize, and this timidity seems to be 

 increased in the periods when they are holding cocoons — possibly 

 because the maternal solicitude inhibits the desire for food, as it cer- 

 tainly impedes the search for it. All my captives drank water eagerly 

 each day, though still holding to the cocoon by the feet, but in most 

 cases refused all insect food until about the time when the young hatch ; 

 in most instances they made no attempt whatsoever to grasp insects 

 walking near them. Evidently it is the hunger for food that takes 

 them away so soon from the progeny-nest. The ability to undergo 

 long fasts is well known for the females of a number of species of 

 spiders, while males appear to need food at more frequent intervals — 

 just as they generally require more water. 



Effects of Removal of the Cocoon. — Females with cocoons, when caught 

 roughly and separated from their cocoons, will frequently feign death 

 admirably, lying quite limp and suffering handling without moving. 

 No case of death-feigning was seen in any individual holding a cocoon. 

 If the cocoon be returned to them within a few minutes they generally 

 grasp it immediately in their jaws and seek escape. But there may 

 well be individual differences in this behavior. Thus with a pencil 

 I removed the cocoon two inches away from one of my captives; she 

 showed no death-feigning, but walked about feeling for it. When I 



