MATERNAL INDUSTRY : COCOONS OF ORBWEAVERS. 



93 



is of a yt'llow color, and so slight as io show the loose mass of eggs within. 

 (Fig. 70.) Tt appears to resemhle quite exactly the cocoon of its congeners 



in Africa and the West India Islands. 

 Nephila p^^. p^ample, the cocoon of Nephila ni- 

 Cocoona. \. . t\ \r- i • £ 



gra, according to Dr. Vnison/ is or a 



lieantiful yellow color, and is attached to the bark 

 of trees, or sinin against the surface of some re- 

 cess. Nepliila maurata spins a large cocoon, of a 

 beautiful orange yellow color. This is not attached 

 to her snare, hut is woven against any adjacent 

 recess, or in some shaded place near to her, al- 

 though sometimes she goes quite a distance from 

 her web to lind a cocooning site. The orange 

 colored egg sac is enclosed in a flossy envelope 

 of a paler color.- 



If we may credit the statement, or rather the 

 illustration of Mr. Wood, the Nephilas of the 

 West Indies, which are there known as the Tufted 

 spider, spin a cocoon similar to that described, hut 

 susiJended to the stalks of various plants, instead 

 of being hung beneath leaves or woven against 

 hard surfaces.^ The figure presented by Mr. 

 Wood, and which is here reproduced, is said by 

 the author to he made from specimens in the 

 British Museum, although I do not remember to 

 have seen these when examining the collections of spinningwork at Ken- 

 sington several years ago. 



IV. 



I have several cocoons of our American Gasteracantha, two of which 

 were sent from Southern California by Mrs. Eigenmann. A third was 

 woven by a living female sent from the same section ; and a 

 Gastera- fo^^,.j|j ^^.^g received from Dr. George Marx, of Washington. The 

 cant a. ^^^^^_^^^ .^ attached to the bark of a twig, upon which it is spun. 

 It is a flossy button or wad of a bright yellow color. The outer strands 

 of the spinningwork have a glossy appearance. It is about three- fourths 

 inch long and one-half inch wide. (Fig. 72, and Plate IV., Vol. II.) The 

 California examples are smaller but similar. 



These cocoons are, in structure, like those of their African congeners 

 as described by M. Vinson.* This author describes a cocoon of Gastera- 

 cantha bourbonica as an ovoid, round and flattened, woolly wad of a yellow 



Fic. 72. Cocoon of a California 

 Gasteracantha, woven upon 

 curled leaves. 



> Araneides des Madagascar, etc., page 191. 



3 " Homes Without Hands," page 584. 



* Araneides Reunion, Maurice, et Madagascar, page 238, 



^ Idem, page 180. 



