MATERNAL INDUSTRY: COCOONS OP ORBWEAVERS. 



93 



is of a yellow color, and so slight as to show the loose mass of eggs within. 



(Fig. 70.) It appears to resemble quite exactly the cocoon of its congeners 

 in Africa and the West India Islands. 



Cocoons ^*^^ example, the cocoon of Nephila ni- 

 gra, according to Dr. Vinson,^ is of a 



beautiful yellow color, and is attached to the bark 



of trees, or spun against the surface of some re- 

 cess. Nephila maurata spins a large cocoon, of a 



beautiful orange yellow color. This is not attached 



to her snare, but is woven against any adjacent 



recess, or in some shaded place near to her, al- 

 though sometimes she goes quite a distance from 



her web to find a cocooning site. The oi'angc 



colored egg sac is enclosed in a flossy envelope 



of a paler color. ^ 



If we may credit the statement, or rather the 



illustration of Mr. Wood, the Nephilas of the 



We.st Indies, whicli are there known as the Tufted 



spider, spin a cocoon similar to that described, but 



suspended to the stalks of various plants, instead 



of being hung beneath leaves or woven against 



hard surfaces.^ The figure presented by Mr. 



Wood, and wliich is here reproduced, is said, by 



the author to be made from specimens in tlie 



British Museum, although I do not remember to 



have seen these when examining the collections of spinningwork at Ken- 

 sington several years ago. 



IV. 



I have several cocoons of our American Gasteracantha, two of which 

 were sent from Southern California by Mrs. Eigenmann. A third was 

 woven by a living female sent from the same section ; and a 



Fin. 72. Cocoon of a California 

 Gasteracantha, woven upon 

 curled leaves. 



Gastera- 

 cantha. 



fourth was received from Dr. George Marx, of Wa.shington. The 

 latter is attached to the bark of a twig, upon which it is spun. 

 It is a flossy buttoii, or wad of a bright yellow color. The outer strands 

 of the si)inningwork have a glossy appearance. It is about three-fourths 

 inch long and one-half inch wide. (Fig. 72, and Plate IV., Vol. II.) The 

 California examples are smaller but similar. 



These cocoons are, in structure, like those of their African congeners 

 as described by M. Vinson.* This author describes a cocoon of Gastera- 

 cantha bourbonica as an ovoid, round and flattened, woolly wad of a yellow 



' Aranoidcs dos Mailagascar, etc., page 191. ^ Idem, ]>atre lS(i. 



3 " Homes Witlinut Hands," page 584. 



■• Araneides Reunion, Maurice, et Madagascar, page 238. 



