MATEIiNAL INDUSTRY : COCOONS OF OKBWEAVERS. 



107 



loosely, by attaching threads, as is the case of some other spiders that 

 make several cocoons. However, in this respect, the habit may differ. As 



a rule these cocoons are stretched like those of 

 Cyclo.sa caudata, along the axis of tlie mother's 

 horizontal orb, and are thus im- 

 mediately under the maternal 

 care. (Fig. 103.) In this posi- 

 tion I have seen them in New 

 .Jersey, and thus MrS. Treat has ^"'- '"^^ ^''"'°°" °'' 



^ Uloborus, enlarged 



observed them, and so also Mr. to show the surface 

 Enierton lias described them. ^°'"*'- 



-"^^^ 



Fig. 100. Fiu. 101. 



Cocoon of Basilica spider ; Fici. 100, \^- ^ t\ i t \ k ■ ■ • i • 



the case open to show the black < J" ig- 104.) Our American species appears m tins 

 egg ball; Fig. 101, the ball open respect to liave tlic Same habit as the European 



to show the inside structure. . __, 



species, Uloborus walckenaerius. 



This mode of disposing of the cocoon, however, cannot be universal, 

 for I possess a specimen, received from Dr. George Marx, which is stretched 

 along a little twig, to which its orl) \\-as attached, at a point slightly aliove 

 the cocoon string. (Fig. 105.) 



Hentz describes the cocoon of Uloborus inammeatus as tapering at both 

 ends, in color whitish, with veins of brownish black, and with many small 

 tubercl&s. He collected it in Alaliama in diy places.* 



. VI. 



Tlie division liere indicated In'tween species haljitually making a single 

 cocoon and species habitually .spinning several is, on the whole, a natural 

 one; but there are certain facts to be noted which throw a measure of 



FiG. 103. Cocoon string of Uloborus in position upon the snare. 



uncertainty around any such generalization. For example, it has long been 

 supposed that Argiope cophinaria spins but one cocoon ; and, judging from 



1 "Spiders of the United States," page 129, plate xix., Fig. 12G. 



