MATERNAL INDUSTRY : COCOONS OF ORBWEAVERS. 



77 



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Virginia creeper. A pretty 

 environment, indeed, this last 

 one, but of less stability than 

 beauty; for, as the autumn ad- 

 vanced, and the leaves of the 

 ampelopsis dropped to the 

 ground, the egg case, so care- 

 fully wrought by the mother 

 while expending upon it the 

 last energies of her life, fell 

 to the ground, and probably 

 would have soon mingled with 

 mother earth had it not been 

 rescued by the collector's hand. 

 These cases will sufficiently il- 

 lustrate the natural sites chosen 

 by this spider upon which to 

 suspend her cocoon. 



The hanging of the silken 

 flask is not without an evi- 

 dence of nice care and discrim- 

 ination in the adjustment of its 

 supports. The guy lines are 

 commonlj'^ so placed upon the 

 different parts of the cocoon. 



Fig. 39. Cocoons of Argiope cophinaria, swung among field grasses and wild flowers. 



