92 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



has yielded its stock of white goods upon washing day. Observation of 

 this brood shows that there is practically no difference between the habits 

 of young Epeiroid spiders in the United States and those of the baby 

 Argiopes so well described by Mr. Pollock.^ 



By five o'clock in the evening the entire cavity was filled witli the 

 little creatures who had gradually separated from the mass in order to 

 cast their skins. Great numbers of grayish white moults occupied the lines 

 directly in front of the opening, to which point many of the spiderlings 

 preferred to come for their moulting. (See Fig. 57.) By standing u}>on a 

 chair and using a lens I could see the entire ])rocess in various individuals. 

 The feet were thrust out, upwards, grasping the supporting lines, the abdo- 

 men doubled up tmtil it was almost at right angles with the cephalothorax, 

 and sustained by tiireads outgoing from the spinnerets. The skin of the 

 cephalothorax as it cracked open and escaped was so transparent that in 

 the light of the setting sun it glistened like silver. The legs were gradually 

 disengaged by slight regular movements, and issued wliite and transparent. 

 At various points in the nest this process could be seen in divers stages 

 of completion. 



This interesting colony remained in or near the original place of assem- 

 blage for a week, during wliich time they migrated to nearby parts of the 

 vine, forming thus several separate groups. From these they 

 isper- gradually, but rapidly at the last, spun themselves away and 

 disappeared by aeronautic flight. I saw only one case of canni- 

 balism in tlie entire brood ; one individual was seen feeding on the carcass 

 of a comrade, which it may or may not have slain. 



Mrs. Mary Treat^ has related the moulting manners of a brood of young 

 Turret spiders, Lycosa arenicola. AVhen they were two weeks old these 

 spiderlings strung innumerable lines of web across the mother's 

 Young' liack, upon which they dispo.sed of the castoff skins of their 

 g . , moults. Up to this time they had been massed upon her abdo- 



men, as well as upon her cephalothorax, but then the little 

 creatures, as if by common consent, entirely forsook the abdomen as a 

 resting place and devoted it to the uses of a dressingroom. Sometimes 

 two or three were divesting themselves at the same time. They fastened 

 themselves by a short thread to one of the lines strung across the mother's 

 back, and this held them firmly while they undressed. The skin cracked 

 all around the cephalothorax and was held only by the front edge ; next 

 the abdomen was freed, and then came the struggle to free the legs. The 

 little one worked and kicked vigorously and seemed to have no easy task, 

 but came out of the old dress in about fifteen minutes, although exhausted 

 and almost lifeless. However, it was soon as briglit and active as before. 



' Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1865, page 460. See also Vol. II., page 228. 

 '' Home Studies in Nature. 



