1909.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 565 



and very thick-walled, excellent homes for the young; the mother 

 closes them tightly before making each cocoon, and generally does 

 not emerge for food until a lapse of several days or even a fortnight; 

 she always returns to them after her hunts, and remains there with the 

 young until they leave. It is quite probable the young of the second 

 cocoon, when it is made late in the summer, may overwinter in the nest. 



Emerton says of this species (under the name of mystaceus) : u 

 " The largest of the New England Attidre . . . . It lives under stones 

 at all seasons. In winter or when moulting or laying eggs it hides in a 

 thick white bag of silk, in which the cocoons are made early in the 

 summer. The young become nearly full grown before winter." 

 Drassus neglectus (Keys). 



These spiders, as Emerton has noted, are to be found in pairs in 

 silken bags, and the following observations would show that such 

 mating-nests are probably always spun by the males. A pair (cT 1506, 

 9 1507) were taken from a nest on 16 June and placed in a cage. 

 During that afternoon and evening he spun a thin, closed nest around 

 them both, next day copulated within it, and both remained in the 

 nest until their escape twelve days later. Another pair, c? 1510, 

 9 1511, from separate nests were put into one cage, and the male 

 alone did the spinning of the nest. Another pair, cT 1527, 9 1528, 

 were taken from one nest and placed in a cage; he built a beautiful 

 and spacious saccular nest, entirely closed, in which he charged his 

 palps with sperm and she moulted ; she ate him in it three days later. 

 Still a fourth male, of another pair (cT 1529, 9 1530) from one nest, spun 

 a mating nest. In only one case have I seen the cocooning, though 

 several individuals were kept under observation. 9 1530 was on 

 24 July within a cylindrical closed nest, which was her enlargement 

 of the mating nest constructed by d 1 1529; in this species, then, the 

 mating-nest may become the cocoon-nest. At 7.30 A.M. I found she 

 was spinning within the nest upon a cocoon-base, that was a horizon- 

 tally placed, slightly concave saucer of silk fastened by two opposed 

 edges to the sides of the nest ; the beginning of this base was not seen, 

 but it must be either a modified partition of the nest or else a separate 

 structure, and in either case not a part of the wall of the nest. I was 

 unfortunately obliged to leave before the egg-laying, and on returning 

 at noon found the cocoon was completed. The cocoon is always 

 large, snow white, of a flattened biconvex shape, its circumference 

 polygonal; the mother holds it tenaciously with her feet until the 



11 New England Spiders of the Family Attida\ Trans. Connecticut Acad. Sci 

 8, 1891. 



