MATERNAL INDUSTRY: COCOONS OF ORBWEAVERS. 



79 



October 1st. When first observed, it was a round ball, which was gradually 

 wi-ought into a pear shaped object. This, when I saw it, was hung from 

 the under side of a 



Cocoon sheeted curtain (Fig. 



Hung- to a , ^ , , , , , 



Curtain. ■^^^' *^* '^^^^^'^'^ o^^r 

 and extended like a 



bridge from the shield shaped 



hub of the snare to the adjacent 



wall. The curtain terminated in 



a pocket, from the bottom of 



which the cocoon was suspended. 



The cocoon was thus just behind 



the orb which was spun across 



the angle about seven feet from 



the floor. The characteristic zig- 

 zag ribbon of the web extended 



well downward, and a number of 



lines stretched from side to side 



across the angle, nearly to the 



floor, forming a convenient gang- 

 way for the sjjider. 



Immediately after finishing 



her work the mother spider be- 

 gan to languish. She would not 



take flies as aforetime when of- 

 fered to her. Once she tried to 



escape from the room into the 



Park, but was brought back, and 



placed upon her lower gangway 



lines, which she mounted, with great apjiarent difficulty, to the central 



shield, behind which she stationed herself. She was found dead upon the 

 floor one morning, having lived only a few days after the 

 completion of her cocoon. 



The cocoons of Cophinaria vary in length from five- 

 eighths of an inch to one inch and five-eighths. Three meas- 

 urements between these limits are one and a half, one and 

 a fourth, and one and one-eighth inches. The bowl is gen- 

 erally about one inch wide, and the flask one-eightii inch 



„ .„ ^ , wide at the tip of the neck. Tiie bowls are for the most 



Fig. 42. A round co- ^ 



coon of Argiope part decidedly pyriform in shape, but sometimes are spher- 

 cop inaria. -^^^ instead of oval. As the spiderlings grow a little within 



the sac after hatching, the bowl somewhat expands, or rather fulls out, but 



the original shape remains substantially unchanged. 



The structure of the cocoon is as follows : First, the outer case or shell 



Fir,. 41. 



Cocoon of Argiope suspended from a curtain 

 behind her snare in Sedgley House. 



