76 



AMERICAN SPIDEKS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



flask, with its precious contents, is swung. At the top of this clump a 

 second cocoon is placed. It is of a yellowish white color, and, in order to 

 give it a proper site, the tops of the spears of grass have been pulled down 

 and twisted together, so that the capsules, or graceful clusters of seed vessels, 

 hang around the cocoon on every side, giving it a beautiful setting. These 

 cocoons are eleven inches apart, and were probably spun by two spiders. 



Anotlier example is hung 

 in the very midst of a tall 

 field chrysanthemum. The 

 cocoon is much larger than 

 those just described, and is 

 of a rounder shape. Two 

 branches of the plant have 

 been drawn towards each oth- 

 er, and these again 

 towards the cen- 



Among 

 Chrysan- 

 themums, 



tral stalk. With- 

 in the space thus 

 circumscribed the egg sac is 

 suspended in the midst of 

 a maze of lines attached at 

 one end to the cocoon, and 

 at the other to various parts 

 of leaves and stems of the 

 plant. It is about eighteen 

 inches from the ground, and 

 forms a pretty object amidst 

 the balled white blossoms of 

 chr3'santhemum. (Fig. 39.) 

 A third and fourth spec- 

 imens are hung in similar 

 positions within the out- 

 branching limbs of a wild 

 flower unknown to me, 

 which is tliick set with little 

 white blossoms. Still an- 

 other is hung within a little 

 canopy formed by the leaves 

 of a blackberry vine, that have the beautiful hues with which, in our 

 climate, the autumn is wont to paint the foliage. Still another is suspended 

 beneath a similar canopy, formed of leaves on a young maple 

 bush. Another has a similar site within the clustered leaves of 

 a fragrant honeysuckle vine ; and yet one more has been sus- 

 pended upon the leaf stalks and under the leaves of our well known 



Fig. 38. Cocoon of Argiope cophiuaria, hung in the tops of grasses. 



Leafy 

 Canopies. 



