98 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



number several hundred. The young hatch in the early win- 

 ter but remain in the cocoon until spring. In many cases 

 parasitic Hymenoptera were sharing their winter house. 



Type: Cyclosa conica. 



In midsummer we find the cocoons of this small orb-weaver 

 arranged in a string across the center of its vertical web. The 

 string is also partly made up of nodules of silk, trash, and frag- 

 ments of insects captured by the spider. At the lower end is 

 the tenant herself, scarcely distinguishable from the other ele- 

 ments of the string. The cocoons may be separated by short 

 intervals, or placed so close together as to touch or even overlap 

 slightly. They number from three to five, are elliptical or 

 double-cone-shaped, and are of a yellowish-brown color. Each 

 consists of a single piece of floss, approximately one-fourth 

 inch long and one-eighth inch wide, and close-woven enough 

 to be weather-proof. There are from ten to twenty-five bluish- 

 white eggs in each cocoon of the string. These are not aggluti- 

 nate. Contrary to the arrangement in Araneus labyrintJieus, the 

 upper cocoon is the newest one, and may contain eggs while the 

 lower ones are occupied by young spiders. 



Family SALTICID.a:. 



The salticid family presents some interesting phases of ma- 

 ternal instinct not found among the orb-weavers. This must 

 necessarily be so, since the mother usually survives the act of 

 ovipositing and watches over the eggs and young, while the orb- 

 weavers, as a rule, perish after laying eggs. Cocooning takes 

 place earlier in the season than is common among the Argi- 

 opidse, so that by the time winter sets in the young are well 

 grown, and spend the cold months snugly ensconsed in silken 

 bags of their own fabrication. In midwinter one may find these 

 bags under stones or bark and in crevices of wood. In some 

 such situations, and also in the seed-tops of weeds and grasses 

 or in clusters of leaves, we find their cocoons in spring and 

 summer. They are always enclosed in an outer sack, in some 

 cases the one in which the female spent the winter. Being 

 thus enclosed they are rather frail, and may be merely pockets 

 in the sides of the dwelling-tube. They are usually, however, 

 lens-shaped affairs, suspended, like a hammock, from its walls. 



