MATERNAL INDUSTRY : COCOONS OF ORBWEAVKRS. 



85 



its lethargy only the condition naturally preceding cocooning. The sec- 

 ond cocoon was a little larger and more flocculont than the fh-st. 



After this maternal duty the mother 

 disposed of the flies that were entangled 

 in her web, without any hesitation. This 

 was not the end of tlie matter, however, 

 for on the 14th of December, just three 

 weeks after the second cocoon had been 

 spun, a third was made, which was like- 

 wise attached to the web. On the after- 

 noon of January Gth, three weeks after 

 this last maternal act, the spider lost her 

 grip upon the meshes of her web and 

 fell dead to the floor, having been in the 

 possession of tlie observer three months. 



II. 



The genus Epcira, which includes our 



best known and most numerous species 



of ( )rl)weavers, has little va- 



^^® ^ riety among its most tyi)ical 



Cocoons. •'. . !y , . . / 



species m the lorra of its co- 

 coons, the manner of protection, and 

 nature of sites selected for them. The 

 general form is that of a ball, hemi- 

 sphere, or semiovoid mass of thick, silken 

 floss, that enswathes a white silken bag, 

 within which a number of eggs, usually 

 yellow, are massed. This is fastened in 

 any convenient and eligible i)osition, at- 

 tached directly to the surface or hung 

 amid supporting threads. I have strip- 

 ped from a decaying trunk a Ijit of bark 

 eighteen inclies long, on which one could 

 count forty or fifty of these cocoons in- 

 termingled with those of Agalena njevia 

 and other Tubeweavers, and of Latcri- 

 grades, as well as the white silken tubes 

 of Saltigrades. (Fig. 55.) Often the 

 dried bodies of the mothers, who had 

 died shortly after their last maternal 

 care and work, were found clinging to 

 the nurseries of their young. When deposited in such sites the eggs 

 rarely have any other protection in the way of spimiingwork than the 



Cocoons of Epeira underneath the 

 bark of an old tree. 



