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BULLETIIV BOTANICAL 



OARDEN. 

 OF 



THE CHARLESTON MUSEUM 



Vol. 5 CHARLESTON, S. C, DECEMBER, 1909 No. 8 



LOCAL FAUNA 



Spiders 



A female spider, Oxyopes viridans, taken at the Navy Yard by 

 Mr. F. M. Weston, Jr., on September 28, has been kept alive at 

 the Museum, and its process of egg-laying studied by Miss Laura 

 M. Bragg, upon whose notes the following account is based. 



On October 7 a cocoon similar to that described by Hentz ' was 

 formed. This author well describes the solicitude with which 

 the female watches over the cocoon, but an accident unfortun- 

 ately prevented him from studying the development of the young 

 after hatching. Miss Bragg 's notes are therefore of special in- 

 terest. 



Late in October a rupture of the cocoon exposed what appeared 

 to be two yellow eggs, but which proved upon examination with a 

 hand lens to be young spiders. After a day at the crack in the 

 cocoon they disappeared and only flecks of white material could 

 be seen until November 13, when approximately one hundred and 

 fifty young spiders began to emerge from the cocoon. 



These were about one tenth of an inch in length, with deep 

 orange abdomen and green cephalothorax, with spots and three 

 longitudinal bands of brown. The legs were marked with alter- 

 nate light and dark rings, and bore black spines. 



» Spiders of the United States. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Occasional Papers, II, 1875. 



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