108 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



FuJ. IW. Cocoon string of 

 Uloborus ; cocoons in the 

 snare. (After Emerton.) 



its size and the number of eggs that are found therein, one would seem 

 to be sufficient to guarantee the continuance of the species. I liave no 



doubt that, as a general rule, Coph- 

 inaria makes but one cocoon, but 

 that there are exceptions is very 

 certain. 



Several years ago a clerical 

 friend brought me two cocoons of 

 this species, whicli had been spun 

 on his premises by the same spi- 

 der. Mrs. Mary Treat has discov- 

 ered what appears to her to be a va- 

 riety of Argiope cophinaria, which 

 makes four cocoons, and which she 

 accordingly named Argiope multi- 

 concha.' She sent me a string of 

 these cocoons, of which there were 

 four, of the general shape and about the usual size, strung within a few 

 inches of each other. They had been spun against the wall of a kitchen 

 in a house in Western Missouri. The spider mother was also sent, but the 

 specimen was much dried up, and in such a condition that it could not 

 be very satisfactorily studied. It seemed to differ in no particuUir from 

 Argiope cophinaria. If it be indeed the same species, what are the pecul- 

 iar circumstances that have caused 

 such a remarkable variation in 

 habit ? Is it true that Cophinaria 

 does, more frequently than has 

 been supjaosed, indulge in the lux- 

 ury of an additional egg case ? 

 Two cocoons of this lot were open- 

 ed and found to contain young spi- 

 ders that had hatched, but died 

 within the egg sac. The spider- 

 lings were not counted, but they 

 were very numerous. 



During the summer of 1888 a 

 female Cophinaria was 

 discovered in the Farm- 

 ers' Market of Philadel- 

 phia upon the meat stall 

 of one of the butchers. 

 She had probably been brought into the market from the country, hid- 



Double 

 Cocoon- 

 ing- Ar- 

 giope. 



Fig. 105. Uloborus snare and cocoon 

 string on adjoining twig. 



^ "American Naturalist," Deceuilier, 1887, page 1122. 



