SCHEFFBR : COCOONING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 107 



Family MIMETID^. 



A small family, having two or three representatives in eastern 

 and southern United States. The genus Mimetus is said to 

 make one or two oblong cocoons, tapering equally at both ends, 

 which are suspended by many threads connected with a web 

 like that of Theridion, in the family Theridiidse. The mother 

 spider has been observed to watch over these cocoons. The 

 cocoon of our other genus, Ero, is characterized in the type de- 

 scription below. 



Type : Ero furcata. 



The cocoon of this small spider has been described in detail 

 by the English writer, Blackwall. In the fall months I found 

 a number of cocoons about Ithaca, N. Y., that answered per- 

 fectly to the description, and I have, therefore, attributed them 

 to this species. All were empty when found. They are little 

 balloon-shaped affairs, resembling the cocoons of Theridiosoma 

 gemmosum. Lilie the latter, also, they are suspended by a slen- 

 der pedicle consisting of a bundle of stiff threads about a half- 

 inch long. They are usually attached to the under side of a 

 rock that does not lie flat upon the ground. The cocoon proper 

 is one-eighth of an inch in diameter and composed of silk hav- 

 ing a texture about like that of soft paper. It is pale brown in 

 color. Around this is an irregular network made up of large 

 meshes of reddish-brown threads. Some of these threads unite 

 at the top of the cocoon to form the pedicle referred to above. 

 When the young have emerged from the paper-like inner cocoon 

 it is apparently an easy matter to escape through the large open 

 meshes of the outer network. 



The eggs are said to be large for the size of the spider, five to 

 twelve in number, of a brown color, and not agglutinate. 



Family CECOBIID^. 



Of this family, the genus Q^cobius only is accredited to the 

 United States by Simon. Relative to the subject in hand, he 

 says : "Their cocoons are flocculent, slightly transparent, plano- 

 convex, and fixed in place. They contain each seven or eight 

 eggs, which are not agglutinate." 



