GENERAL COCOONIN(; IFARITS OF Sl>rr)KRS. 



121 



which- it is closely allied structurally.- It is fouml in liouses, u]>oii walls, 



'etc., in warm situations. It is described as slow and deliberate in its 



motions, displaying somewhat of the action of a gnat in lifting 



4.u^°:^^ and iioising its leg in the air when walking. The whole char- 



TJilOl ctClCci. /> 1 



acter of the aranead is mild and quiet. The poison fangs are 

 so feeble as to be of but little use in seizing its prey, which office is chiefly 

 performed by the maxillte. When taken, Scytodes offers no resistance and 

 attempts no flight, but, feigning death, resigns itself quietly to its fate.^ 



This tribe embraces the singular genus Walckenaera, some of whose 

 species have the ej'es jilaced upoia little turret like elevations of the ceph- 

 alothorax. Their habits have not been carefully studied, and 

 their cocoons are little known. One Eiu'opean species, Walcke- 

 naera acuminata, makes a cocoon Hat on one side, rounded on the 

 other, about one-third inch in diameter, and comiiosed of slightly woven 

 white silk. It is found in autumn on the unilcr surface of stones and 



Walck 

 enaera. 



Fl... 126. 



Cocoon of Agalena ntevia, spun upon bark. 

 Fig. 126. Appearance of exterior, covered with brown sawdust. Figs. 127 and 128. Views after the outer 



coverings have been rempved. 



other objects.- Our American fauna has a number of closely related rep- 

 resentatives of this strange genus, which are relegated by Emerton to vari- 

 ous genera,^ and it is probable that their cocoonery nearly resembles that 

 of the above species. 



II. 



The most common Tuljeweaver in the Eastern States is proliably the 

 Speckled Agalena, Agalena nsevia. Its funnel shaped nest, with its broad 

 sheeted top spread over the grass or hedges, or stretched in mis- 

 cellaneous sites, is one of the most familiar objects in our land- 

 scape. Its cocoon is attached to some surface, as the leaf of a 

 tree, a rock, or the under surface of a loose bit of old bark. In 

 this position Agalena spreads a circular patch a half inch or 



Tills is covered 



Tube- 

 weaving 

 Agale- 

 ninse. 



more in dian^eter, within which .she encloses her eggs. 



Staveley, " British Spiders," page 268. = Idem, page 205. 



See iiis "New England Tlieridii<l<e." 



