SPINNING ORGANS OF EVAGRUS. IO9 



place and fifteen feet away not a spider is to be found, from which 

 we may conclude that the young do not scatter much. The 

 web is a very primitive structure, containing no viscid threads 

 and is hardly more than a thin irregular sheet woven on the 

 ground and attached to twigs, leaves or the rock itself. There 

 seems to be no definite form of nest but simply an irregular sheet 

 of threads. 



The cocoon of Evagriis is somewhat conical or cup-shaped 

 as shown in Fig. 5, which figure also gives the relation of the 



s 



size of spider to that of cocoon, being a sketch of a spider only 

 a short time after she had finished her cocoon. The cocooning 

 process was seen only once and that time the basal piece had 

 been woven before direct observations began. The base, which 

 was woven first, consists of the cup-shaped lower portion. A 

 short time after it was finished, the spider was closely observed 

 during the remainder of the process. At 2:55 P. M. May 4, the 

 spider placed her epigynum across this base, and discharged from 

 her genital aperture a large yellowish drop of viscid fluid, which 

 remained attached to her for some time, while the ova were 

 dropping into it. At 3:15 P. M. she freed herself from this 

 drop and immediately began to spin the cover. She did this, in 

 which process both pairs of spinnerets were used, by standing 

 with her legs and palpi on the margin of the base, and sweeping 

 her spinnerets from side to side over the egg-mass, never at any 



