Kansas University Science Bulletin. 



Vol. Ill, No. 2. OCTOBER, 1905. j^Juxm,™!: 



THE COCOOmNa HABITS OF SPIDERS. 



BY THEO. H. SCHEFFER. 

 INTRODUCTIOX. 



THIS treatise does not aim at anything like a complete sur- 

 vey of the subject. The field is large, and the time spent 

 by the author in going through its descriptive literature would 

 not justify any assumption of completeness in the results 

 gleaned. Then, too, the period of actual investigation prose- 

 cuted in the spiders' territory covered only a portion of one 

 season — from August to December — among Eastern forms, and 

 a single year among the spiders of central and western Kansas. 

 Although in that limited time and in the two restricted dis- 

 tricts it was possible to verify some of the statements or con- 

 clusions of writers on the subject, and to add something to 

 existing knowledge, it is evident, at least to ihe writer, that 

 several seasons' investigation in a wider range of spider terri- 

 tory should have preceded the preparation of a paper on this 

 subject. However, the haunts of the Araneida are not forbid- 

 den ground and the investigator who is so disposed may add to 

 or subtract something from this if he choose. 



In general, the discussion will be confined to species included 

 in the fauna of temperate North America, but characterizations 

 of the habits of families will be drawn from these groups at 

 large. The system of classification worked out by that veteran 

 French writer, E. Simon, in his recently completed "Histoire 

 Naturelle des Araigne^s," will be followed in all cases where it 

 has been possible to establish identity from the synonyms. 



Of the twenty-five families of spiders assigned to temperate 



(85) 



