COMPARATIVE COCOONING ]NI1USTRIP:S. 169 



caudata, Epeira bifurca, Uloborus pluinipes, Epeira basilica. Ainong 

 Lineweavers may be fouiul most of the genus Theridium, as T. tepida- 

 . . riorum and T. studiosum, Steatoda borealis, the various species 

 Snares^ °* Erigone and Argyrodes. The Tubeweavers have numerous 

 representatives, as it is a quite general habit for the species of 

 tills tribe to deposit their cocoons within the tubular portion of their 

 snare, which forms also a nest. Among the Territelaria; Atypus has the 

 same habit, so also have the South American species described by M. Simon, 

 and the immense creatures known as the Mygalida' appear also to nurse 

 their cocoons within their burrows. This is the custom of our well known 

 Trapdoor spider, Cteniza californica. Among the snareless Wandering spi- 

 ders, Citigrades, Saltigrades, and Laterigrades, of course, there are no rep- 

 resentatives of this group. 



Spiders that hang their cocoons outside their snares are largely repre- 

 sented among Orbweavers. Indeed, this may be said to be a general habit, 

 as most of such genera as Epeira, Argiope, Zilla, Acrosoma, Tet- 

 g ragnatha, Nepliila, Meta, and Hyptiotes spin their cocoons sep- 



arately from their snares. The habit prevails also among Line- 

 weavers, as is illustrated by the habit of Tlieridium frondeum in swinging 

 her pretty little orange colored cocoon to the under sides of leaves and 

 the surfaces of rocks. Among Tubeweavers, Segestria canities of California 

 suspends her string of clustered cocoons outside her nest, although she 

 does subsequently spin a tubular cell alongside the cocoon string, and 

 there dwells while completing the process of cocoon making and while 

 the young are being reared. Tegenaria medicinalis also suspends her co- 

 coon most frequently to some object, as a log, or beam, or branch, out- 

 side of her snare, although sometimes she hangs it to the lower jiortion 

 of the sheeted pouch itself, or even interweaves it within the fibres of 

 the sheet. Among Citigrades, the Southern species, Pucetia aurora, (ind 

 all the known species of the genus Dolomedes sw'ing their cocoons not, 

 indeed, outside their snares, since they are Wandering spiders, but in 

 special nests prepared for the purpose. 



The spiders which attach their cocoons to fixed surfaces, instead of 



swinging them among interlacing lines or suspending them with- 



_, in their snares, are numerous and have representatives among 



nearly all tribes. Such is the habit among Orbweavers, in most 



of the genera, as Epeira, Zilla, Gasteracantha, Nephila, etc. 



Among Lineweavers, species that dispose of their cocoons in this way 

 appear to be rare, although such a European species as Theridium denti- 

 culatum has this habit. ^ Among Tubeweavers, the great mass of spiders 

 of all or nearly all the genera fasten their cocoons to various surfaces. 

 These piano convex objects may be seen in the autumn, for the most 



Staveley, " British Spiders," page 147. 



