SCHEFFER : COCOONING HABITS OP SPIDERS. 103 



mains there while one brood after another hatches, grows, and 

 disperses. All, adults and young, have disappeared by the 

 time winter arrives. 



Family DRASSIDiE. 



Members of the family Drassidse usually live on the ground, 

 under stones or trash. Two general methods of cocooning seem 

 to obtain. Species of the supergenus Drassodese make a flat- 

 tened cocoon, as, in fact, all drassids do, but, unlike that of 

 other genera, it is equally convex on both sides. In further 

 contrast to that of the other main group in this family, the co- 

 coon is always white and more or less firm, but never paper- 

 like nor glossed. In addition to the cocoon, these spiders 

 construct, in shallow holes under stones, a silken bag to contain 

 the former. The cocoon may be loose in this nest, or it may 

 be attached to the stone, which, lined with silk, forms one side 

 of the dwelling-sack. The female remains on guard inside un- 

 til some time after the young have hatched. In a few cases 

 they do not thus enclose the cocoon, but watch it from a retreat 

 near by. 



In some other genera, as Poccilochroa, Megamyrmecion, and 

 MelanopJiora, the cocoon is plano-convex and attached by the 

 fiat face. The other face, convex in the center, becomes flat on 

 the border, forming a circular margin. These cocoons are very 

 firm, parchment-like, and glossy. Though commonly white, 

 they are sometimes pink, or even red. They are not enclosed 

 in any nest or sack, but in some cases, at least, are guarded by 

 the female. Spiders of the genus Gnaphosa make no sack, but 

 some envelop themselves in a light web at the time of laying 

 eggs. They watch over the cocoon, which is not stiff and 

 glossy in texture, like those mentioned above. Species of 

 Herpyllus sometimes place dirt between two layers of silk in the 

 cocoon, or cover the outside with some material resembling the 

 stone to which it is attached. 



Type : Drassodes neglectus. 



Early in May males and females of D. neglectus are common 

 in mating-sacks under stones, the males having matured two or 

 three weeks before the females were sexually developed. Later 

 in the month and in June one may find, in the same locations, 

 their cocoons cradled in light silk hammocks. They are biscuit- 



