220 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



while on tlie windward side it was quite swept away. To quote the moral- 

 izing sentiment of the journalist, "their frail house was more ragged than 

 good resolutions after a week's wear!" The spiderlings remained snugged 

 underneath their leaf as when first seen. 



On the afternoon of May 27th the little fellows had "outgrown their 

 clothes, and hung them on the line, while they looked very smart in their 

 C.U jj- ""^^^ clothes, over which no one had toiled. Their change of sar- 

 First ments had led to no change of habits, for they were snugged to- 



Coats. gether in a ball as when first observed. In other words, the 

 spiderlings had undergone a moult, and their white casts of skins 

 clung to the lines uj)on which the moult bad been effected. This is usual 

 among young spiders. Mrs. Treat has even observed the shed skins of 

 baljy Turret spiders ^ clinging to lines stretched across the top of the 

 mother's abdomen, upon wliicli the younglings had unfrocked themselves. 

 May 29tb, 9 A. M. The colonists were still closely snugged. They had 

 grown some, and bad thrown out a few cables to support their tent, which 

 was then quite rickety. At five o'clock in the evening they were 

 sicm.^'^ "^ *^^*^ ^'^™® condition. May 30th, 5 P. M. A few individuals 

 were found spinning webs on an adjoining tree, but the majority 

 were " wandering in the wilderness of life, and could not Ije found." Twenty- 

 one still clung to the old home. * * * May 31st, at 2 P. M., only five 

 spiderlings could be found. "These wandered about in a forlorn way like 

 pilgrims preparing to seek a shrine beyond the known country." 



June 1st, at 3 P. M., not one of tlie colony was to be found. Tlie frag- 

 ments of the web and "the old clothes" were all that were left. About a 

 rod beyond the site of this colony Miss Skinner found a new ball of spider- 

 lings, apparently quite recently made ; I quote the conclusion of her journal, 

 which relates to this second colony; "June 2d. Something has happened 

 to them, I know not what! Not a trace is to be found. So perish great 

 nations ! " 



Two of the young ladies of tlie seminary made sketches of the colony 

 two or three days after the first observation. At that time the enclosing 

 pavilion had been blown away, nothing remaining but a few straggling 

 lines. I have restored the pavilion from my own sketch, presenting it thus 

 as when first seen. (Fig. 251.) There is nothing to show how many of 

 the two Ogontz colonies may have survived. It is not unlikely tliat a few 

 scattered into the surrounding foliage and might have been found quietly 

 ensconced beneath leaves or any other sheltered j)osition, but the proba- 

 bility is that most, if not all, of them perished. Such is certainly the 

 fate of multitudes of young Orb weavers.'-^ 



' Lycosa arenicola Scudder. See the author's " Tenants of an Old Farm," page 139. 



2 I reserve for the chapter on General Habits (under Moultins") the history of a brood 

 of Epeiras hati'hed upon a honeysuckle arbor in my manse yard, whoi^e fortunes I followed 

 witli particulai' interest. 



