110 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



of all the eggs at once. Tlie first lot, when extruded, were protected in 

 the usual manner. Subsequently Nature compelled the mother to get rid 

 of the remaining eggs; and, moved by the same impulse which covered 

 the first lot, she was excited to overspin the second also. 



This species will sometimes make a cocoon, or a j^art of one, in con- 

 finement, and I have observed that she will occasionally do the same in 

 natural site. 1 have the liranch of a bush which shows the beginning of 

 a cocoon, being the little cup against which the eggs are spun, and also 

 what appears to be the inner egg bag. There is nothing more, and the 

 whole is stayed and shut in by the usual tent like spinningwork. Near by 

 is a perfect cocoon, secured in quite the same manner. If we suppose 

 that these two were made by the same spider, as is highly proVjable, we 

 may infer that the original cocooning purpose of the mother was diverted 

 in some manner, perliaps l)y alarm, which drove her from the spot. She 

 returned to enclose tlie work partially done, but, moved by the urgency of 

 motherliood, presently found a neighboring site, and finished her maternal 

 duties. 



Epeira diademata habitually spins but one cocoon ; but the Spanish 

 investigator, Termeyer,' in the early part of this century, discovered and 

 announced that she would spin as many as six cocoons when specially 

 nourished. The fact strikes me as an extraordinary one, and I have never 

 felt quite free to fully admit it. 



'■ Walckenaer's Apteres, Vol. I., page 152. 



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