MATERNAL INDUSTRY: COCOONS OF ORBWEAVERS. 89 



overlaid, and the outer tent, four inches long, covered the others so com- 

 pletely that one might have supposed the whole to be the work of one 

 spider. Undoubtedly, these works are precau- 

 tions against both enemies and tlie weather, 

 which, although without experience of the ef- 

 fects of either upon her offspring, the mother 

 takes us tliough she really foresaw the danger, p,,,. ,,, ^gg mass 0^^^^, showing 



If an egg nest of this class be opened t^e under sheet and outer covering 



there will be found, in order, first, the outer ™"'°^^ ■ 



tent, separate from the covering of the cocoon ; second, a thin white 

 . silken sheet, which is the outer envelope of the cocoon proper ; 



In Tf-'T'l OT" • LAX 



Structure *''"^^' *'^^® tliick egg pad of curled silk, usually yellow; fourth, 

 the eggs, a conical or hemispherical or spherical mass of small 

 yellow globules. (Fig. 64.) When the spider oviposits against a flat sur- 

 face, the eggs are generally laid upon a coating or sheet of silk sjiread 

 upon the surface, and the padding is then woven over it in the manner 

 of Argiojje cophinaria. If the cocoon is suspended within a maze of lines, 

 the eggs are laid in the midst of the curled nost or egg pad, which is after- 

 wards completed. 



The cocoon of Epeira cinerea shows a variation from the common tyi)e 

 of her congeners. The egg pad is a large flattened hemisphere, an inch 

 .-■■ ,^. .^ . in diameter, and one-fourth to three-eighths of 



an inch thick. This is spun against some flat 

 surface, the boards of a shed, as I have seen it, 

 upon a light cushion of curled yellow silk. Over 

 and around this, on all sides, is woven the egg 



Fit;. 66. Cocoon of Epeira cinerea. i i ■ i • m i i 



pad, whicJi IS Hattened tlown quite compactly, 

 and the whole ma.ss lashed at the edges to the surface. The entire 

 cocoon has a diameter of one and five-eighths inch or more, and is a 

 quarter or three-eighths of an inch thick at the centre. (Fig. 6G.) 



III. 



Epeira triaranea makes a cocoon of the connnon type, but smaller. Of 

 two now before me, spun in bottles, one measures one-fifth of an inch, 

 and the other about half that. They are both round or ovoid 

 , . flossy masses, })rotected by a maze of intersecting lines spun 



around them. This maze is often thickened into a tent, in which 

 condition I have observed numbers spun in the angles of the joists of a 

 cellar at Atlantic City, in the early spring (May 22d), full of young spider- 

 lings just ready to emerge. These cocoons measured one-half inch long, 

 which is somew'hat above the normal lengtli. 



One female was observed (New Lisbon, Ohio), wliose cocoon was wrapped 

 up within a rolled leaf. This was swung to a cord, attached at one end 



