BY W. J. RAINBOW. 535 



birds. In this secluded retreat the female dwells in company 

 with her mate, until at length, getting tired of his company and 

 attentions, the latter has to beat a retreat, or fall a victim to her 

 rapacious appetite. Being now left in complete and undisturbed 

 possession, the female immediately sets to work to increase the 

 size of her dwelling, after which the egg-bags or cocoons are made 

 and placed therein. These are usually four in number, spherical, 

 and somewhat varying in size, and contain on an average about 

 200 eggs each; these are of a pale yellowish colour and exceedingly 

 glutinous. The walls of the cocoons are somewhat loosely and 

 thickly constructed, and are of a pale yellowish colour; attached 

 to their loose threads are a number of minute, hard, silken pellets> 

 some of which ai-e white and some dark green. The cocoons are 

 always suspended inside the nest, one under the other, the mother 

 mounting guard until the 3'oung hatch out. In addition to the 

 orbitular portion there is a perfect labyrinth of lines both above, 

 below, and surrounding it. Enclosed also within these retitelarian 

 lines, but seated below the orb, a "floor" or horizontal curtain of 

 web is constructed, much like that of the snare of E. basilica, 

 McCook.'*' E. pallida {ante, p. 514) fabricates a snare and nest 

 like the one just described. The young of these spiders live 

 together in communities during the first two or three months of 

 their existence; each youthful Epeirid after undergoing the first 

 moult, constructs its own snare, with retreat, orb, floor, and 

 retitelarian lines complete, the outer lines or guys of each minia- 

 ture web joining that of its neighbour's. So numerous are these 

 young spiderlings that their united webs often completely envelope 

 larse shrubs. It will thus be seen that some orb-weavers unite 

 with their beautiful and typical snares the principal features of 

 the line-weavers' webs, thereby apparently forming, to quote 

 McCookjt "a perfect link between the orb-weaving and line- 



* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1878, pp. 124-127. 

 t Loc. cit. p. 127. 



