94 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



spiders hatch in the fall, but remain in the cocoon until the 

 following spring. In November one may find strings in which 

 the older, upper cocoons contain young spiders with color 

 markings, the intermediate cocoons pale, newly hatched fel- 

 lows, w^iile the lower cocoons still have eggs. The mother 

 spider maintains her position immediately below the lowest 

 cocoon of the string. She disappears, however, at the approach 

 of winter, and probably perishes. 



Type: Araneus trifolium. 



This is one of the largest of the orb- weavers. The web is 

 stretched between two bushes or tall weeds in some wet, 

 shrubby pasture. I have not been able to determine the cocoon- 

 ing site, although I have searched carefully on several occasions. 

 During the last week in September and the first week in Octo- 

 ber I secured a number of cocoons from females imprisoned in 

 the college insectary. They are inverted-dome-shaped affairs, 

 a little greater in depth than a hemisphere, and with the base 

 slightly convex. One of the largest measured one and one- 

 fourth inches across this base and had a depth of about one 

 inch. They are formed of a single bunch of loose, flocculent 

 material, somewhat firm on the outside, but transparent enough 

 to show the large egg mass within. All were attached by the 

 base to the top of the large breeding cage or to the potted plants 

 enclosed therein. They are white in color. The egg-mass is 

 subspherical and very compact, being glued together, and 

 partly covered by a white, limy secretion. There are several 

 hundred yellowish eggs in each cocoon. After laying her eggs 

 the mother spider, very much shrunken in appearance, soon dies. 

 The eggs probably do not hatch until spring. 



TypE: Araneus frondosus. 



Perhaps the most common orb-weaver in the East, spinning 

 webs on fences, bridges, or bushes. The cocoons are attached 

 in the angle of timbers close to the web, or, occasionally, to the 

 side of a leaf whose edges are partially drawn together. They 

 are roundish or oval masses of fleecy white silk, held in place 

 by a maze of short radiating lines fastened to the leaf or angle 

 of timbers by attachment disks. They approximate an inch in 

 most dimensions and contain several score of pearly white eggs. 



