GENERAL COCOONING HARITS OF SPIDERS. 



121 



which it is closely allied structurally. It is found in houses, upon walls, 



etc., in warm situations. It is described as slow and deliberate in its 



motions, displaying somewhat of the action of a gnat in lifting 



° . and poising its leg in the air when walking. The whole char- 

 thoracica. . . ^ . . 



acter of the aranead is mild and quiet. The poison fangs are 



so feeble as to be of but little use in seizing its prey, which ofRce is chiefly 

 performed Iw the maxilke.^ When taken, Scytodes offers no resistance and 

 attempts no flight, but, feigning death, resigns itself quietly to its fate.* 



This tribe embraces the singular genus Walckenaera, some of whose 

 species have the ej'es placed upon little turret like elevations of the ceph- 

 alothorax. Their habits have not been carefully .studied, and 

 their cocoons are little known. One European species, Walcke- 

 naera acuminata, makes a cocoon flat on one side, rounded on the 

 other, about one-third inch in diameter, and composed of slightly woven 

 white silk. It is found in autumn on the under surface of stones and 



Walck- 

 enaera. 





'"^ 

 # 



Fig. 128. 



Views after the outer 



Fig. 126. I'l... 127. 



Cocoon of Agalena nsevia, spun upon bark. 

 Fig. 126. Appearance of e.xterior, covered with brown sawdust. Figs. 127 and 128, 



coverings have been removed. 



other objects." Our American fauna has a numljer of closely related rep- 

 resentatives of this strange genus, which are relegated by Emerton to vari- 

 ous genera, 3 and it is probable that their cocoonery nearly resembles that 

 of the above species. 



II. 



The most common Tubeweaver in the Eastern States is probably the 

 Speckled Agalena, Agalena UEevia. Its funnel shaped nest, with its broad 



sheeted top spread over the grass or hedges, or stretched in mis- 

 Tube- cellaneous sites, is one of the most familiar ol)jects in our land- 

 weaving g^,^^^^^ j^g cocoon is attached to some surface, as the leaf of a 

 r.?Jt^ tree, a rock, or the under surface of a loose bit of old bark. In 



this position Agalena spreads a circular patch a lialt mcli or 

 more in diameter, within which she encloses her eggs. This is covered 



Staveley, " British Spiders," page 268. 

 See his " New England Theridiidte." 



2 Idem, page 205. 



