118 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



is formed in July and is round, one-fourtli inch in diameter, and bluish or 

 greenish blue in color. It is loosely covered with silk and fastened to the 

 lower side of a leaf, the edges of which are bound together, so as to pro- 

 tect it.i (Fig. 121.) 



Theridium varians pairs in June, and in July the female constructs 

 several globular cocoons of dull white silk, of a loose texture, the largest 

 of which measures about one-seventh of an inch in diameter. 

 Therid- They are attached to objects situated near the upper part of the 

 lum van- ^^^^^^ ^^^^ contain, according to their size, from twenty to sixty 

 spherical eggs, of a yellowish white color, not adherent among 

 themselves. 2 (Fig. 122.) Withered leaves, dried moss, and particles of 

 indurated earth are generally disposed about the cocoons.^ This habit, 

 which, as will be seen further on, prevails largely in- other fa^iiilies, appears 

 to have but slight hold ujaon the cocooning instincts of the Lineweavers. 



The little bronze colored spiders 

 belonging chiefly to the genus Eri- 

 gone, weave their cocoons within 

 the balled mass of intersecting lines 

 which form their snare and abode. 

 I have seen numberless examples 

 of these webs, made manifest by the 

 morning dews along the Delaware, 

 shining over the entire external foli- 

 age of a large spruce tree from top- 

 most to lowest bough. Again, they 

 will be seen with other Theridioid 

 webs, glittering in the slanting sun- 

 light on myriads of bunched grass 

 tops, timothy heads, and weed tops. 

 Some species of Erigone make a lit- 

 tle balled cocoon similar to those 

 of Theridium first described, and 

 similarly held witliin the snare. Another form of cocoon which I attrib- 

 ute to a spider of the same genus is a minute white button shaped or 

 double convex bag, from one-sixteenth to one-eighth inch in 

 diameter. It is suspended at the converging points of four lines 

 (Fig. 123), which are attached to the surrounding foliage, as in the ex- 

 ample shown of a cocoon hung between two twigs of pine, near a Theridioid 

 web, in which an Erigone was ensconced. 



Fig. 123. Cocoon of Erigone (?) suspended between 

 twigs of pine. 



Erig-one. 



' Staveley, Brit. Spiders, page 140; Blackwall, Spi. Gt. B. & I., pi. xiii., Fig. 111. 



' Two small round cocoon,? are seen within the tent like structure in the cut, but in tliis 

 case, as with the figure of Theridium tx^pidariorum, as heretofore remarked, the artist has 

 erred by drawing in a slieeted tent instead of a structure of open lines. 



3 Blackwall, Spiders Gt. B. & I., page 189, pi. xiv., Fig. 120, d. 



