114 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



branches of pine, just below a bud, where, by reason of their 

 protective coloration, they are not easily seen. They are small, 

 plano-convex objects, elongate oval in outline, and resembling 

 somewhat certain scale-insects. The average length is from 

 five-sixteenths to three-eighths of an inch, and the width a little 

 over one-eightli of an inch. In texture they are paper-like ; in 

 color they differ scarcely at all from the dull gray and brown 

 of the twig. Their most distinctive feature, noticeable only on 

 close inspection, is the presence of fine cross-striations, due to 

 very many parallel lines of silk loops or points, darker in color 

 than the background, and standing up like the pile on velvet. 

 The fiat side of the cocoon applied to the twig is white. Old co- 

 coons have a weathered appearance, and show little trace of the 

 striation mentioned above. Each has also, near the down-twig 

 end, a small opening through which the young spiders escaped. 



Quite a number of spiders in one locality made the mistake 

 of attaching their cocoons to a red-painted foot-bridge across a 

 small creek. In this situation their gray tints made them very 

 conspicuous ; in fact, noticeable at some distance. 



Each cocoon contains from five to twelve pale buff eggs, 

 which adhere slightly, although they cannot be called agglu- 

 tinate. A few freshly spun cocoons were found during the 

 first half of September, but it was not until some two or three 

 weeks later that the majority of the females laid their eggs. 

 Upon the advent of cold weather the eggs were still unhatched ; 

 so it is likely that they remain in that condition until spring. 



Family ZODARIID^. 



Prof. E. Simon credits us with two genera of this family, 

 but Doctor Marx does not catalogue any species in our fauna. 

 Concerning the foreign genus Zodarion, Simon says: "They 

 construct, under rocks, a little spherical case of threads, which 

 holds together small bits of stone and foreign bodies ; the fe- 

 male shuts herself up there to lay her eggs, which are not very 

 numerous and are enveloped in a little sack of firm white 

 tissue." 



