SCHEFFER : COCOONING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 97 



and consisting of a felt-like, reddish brown rug, which detaches 

 readily from the other valve of the capsule. Above and below 

 this capsule are masses of brown silk packing. The eggs are 

 yellow, agglutinate, and number from 1000 to 1200. 



The egg-laying season begins late in August and continues 

 through a part of September. By the middle of the latter 

 month most of the females, after making provision for the per- 

 petuation of the species, have perished. A few may be found, 

 however, as late as October. The eggs begin to hatch the last 

 of September, but the young remain safely ensconced in the co- 

 coon until the following April or May. The large number of 

 spiders that hatch in the fall has been greatly reduced by the 

 time they emerge in the spring. This circumstance has led 

 some investigators to believe that the inmates of the cocoon re- 

 sort to cannibalism during their long winter wait. Hymenop- 

 terous parasites infest numbers of the cocoons, and a great 

 many others are torn open, apparently by birds. 



Type : Argiope trifasciata. 



The Banded Argiope lives, by choice, in grassy ravines or 

 meadows, where her web, with the zigzag band across the cen- 

 ter, is a common sight in the autumn. The cocoon, of closely 

 woven silk, is fastened by radiating threads among the stems 

 of grass close to the abandoned web. It is well down toward 

 the roots of the tangled grass, and is thus not easily found. It 

 is shaped like a kettle-drum, having a flat top nearly three- 

 fourths of an inch in diameter, and an inverted-dome-shaped 

 base of about the same depth. The head of the drum is 

 a circular brown patch that separates readily from the base. 

 Above it projects a scalloped border furnishing attachment to 

 some of the supporting lines. The color of the base is a sort of 

 tan or cream yellow ; it is firmer in texture than the head. 



The egg-laying season is later than that of A. aurantia. Al- 

 though two cocoons were secured in the laboratory as early as 

 September 15, none could be found in the fields until the last 

 of October. On the 24th of that month the majority of the fe- 

 males were still in their webs, their abdomens distended with 

 eggs. Two weeks later tliey had nearly all disappeared and 

 cocoons were plentiful. The eggs are cemented together into a 

 mass nearly as large as that of aurantia. They are yellow, and 



