128 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



left at either end of this tube. Above the whole, and quite encompassing 

 it, was woven a large tent several times the size of the first tuljc, and 

 composed of spinningwork whose threads were quite closely placed, but of 

 so thin tissue that one could see through it without any difficulty. A 

 large opening appeared at one end of this external tent, but whether it 

 was left of purpose for a door, or, more' probably, was the result of acci- 

 dent, I could not determine. 



Among the Drassids which I have found in Colorado is a species of 

 Gnaphosa, which I took under a stone on the summit of the Snowy Range. 

 It was dwelling in a little tubular nest. This species, according 

 to Emerton,^ is found all over New England, from the White 

 Mountains to New Haven. Professor Packard found a female 

 with a cocoon of eggs on Gray's Peak, Colorado, over eleven thousand feet 



Gna- 

 phosa. 



Fk;. 146. Cocoon of Micaria aureata within an interior and exterior tent. 



high. It thus has a remarkably great geographical as well as vertical dis- 

 tribution. The spider lives under stones and leaves. The cocoon is white 

 and fiat, with its diameter as great as, or greater than, the length of the 

 spider. Emerton says that the female stays near her cocoon, but makes 

 no nest. I would have expected her to make her cocoon within her cell. 

 Some of the Drassids, like the Agalenads, protect their cocoons b}' com- 

 pletely enclosing them in cases of mortar. Among these is a species sent 

 me for determination by Mr. F. M. Webster, assistant entomolo- 



Mud gjgj. q£ ^j-jjj ytate of Illinois, through whose intelligent interest 



Encased ... 



P the remarkable facts concerning this spider have thus been made 



known. Mr. Webster has found these mud cocoons throughout 



the whole range of Illinois, a State of great longitudinal extent. Two 



balls from Southern Illinois are larger than the others, and composed of 



' New Eng. DrassitUe, Trans. Conn. Acad., Vdl. VIII., page 13. 



