POPULAR SCIENCE 249 



more of his own life than that of the future generation. In 

 happier circumstances, the female takes absolutely no notice 

 of his presence, when he will cautiously advance towards her 

 and with his long forelegs tentatively feel her outstretched fore- 

 legs. If the female is even yet motionless, it is well and he 

 can proceed with the essentials of his suit. The actual fer- 

 tilisation requires about ten to fifteen minutes with each 

 palpus. 



Oviposition has been well described by Warburton in an 

 almost classical memoir, and I have but few additions to 

 contribute. The sign of preparation which has usually been 

 considered infallible is the spinning of a little sheet of closely 

 woven silk, upon the lower surface of which the eggs are 

 deposited. A spider of mine, however, last autumn spun this 

 sheet and subsequently made no attempt to lay eggs or com- 

 plete the cocoon, in fact it was obviously not the possessor 

 of any eggs at the time when the sheet was spun. Warburton 

 tells how the spider will finish its cocoon even if the eggs be 

 removed immediately after laying. I have one example of 

 the opposite case in which the spider placed the eggs in position 

 but made no effort to cover or protect them in any way, and 

 incidentally enabled me to secure a unique photograph of 

 a spider's egg-cocoon at the middle of construction. 



It is not necessary to take Warburton's advice and sacrifice 

 a night's rest to see the egg-laying, for a spider which, like mine, 

 spends all its days in a dark cupboard may often be deluded 

 into laying its eggs in daylight. Three cocoons is the usual 

 number ; appearing at intervals of a fortnight, and each con- 

 taining from 75 to 85 eggs. A spider that I caught in the early 

 days of April 1914, having laid three cocoons by June, refused 

 to die of old age and lived until December, producing no less 

 than eight additional cocoons of fertile eggs in that time. These 

 last cocoons contained only about forty eggs each. Such an 

 unnatural extension of life I can only attribute to the fact 

 that this spider was an object of interest to a large number 

 of friends — contemporaries at Aldenham School — and that it 

 was thus supplied with a relatively enormous amount of food. 



The egg is originally quite spherical and a pale primrose- 

 yellow in colour. It later becomes ovoid and then develops 

 tightly folded but obvious legs. The young when first able to 

 move have a primrose abdomen and creamy translucent legs 



