76 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Jan., 



month, and did not take it up again, although she frequently touched 

 it; she had not bitten it open before dropping it. The cocoons are 

 nearly globular, white or bluish; their architecture shows them to be 

 composed of two portions, a base and a cover, as in other spiders. 



Webs. — All the males spin irregular sheet-like webs inclined at an 

 angle of about 45° to the floor and the wall of the cage. One female 

 also slowly built up an irregular horizontal web. The other species 

 of Lycosa observed did not make such webs, but simply short lines to 

 attach themselves to the vertical glass walls of the cages. 

 Lycosa nidicola Emerton. 



Care of the Young. — Six females of this large species were kept; 

 three of them were captured carrying cocoons, while one, after her 

 final moult (which was like that of other Lycosids), formed the base 

 of a cocoon upon a drop of water and oviposited upon it, but this 

 cocoon was a failure. 



The large globular cocoon is carried dependent from the spinnerets 

 until it hatches. The mother helps herself in supporting its weight, 

 sometimes by resting it partially against the tarsi of her fourth pair 

 of legs, sometimes standing with her abdomen and the third and fourth 

 pairs of legs upon the wall of the cage, whereby the cocoon rests 

 against the wall. She cuts open the cocoon to allow the escape of 

 the 3'oung, then carries the young upon her for a considerable length 

 of time, one female for 11 days, another for 13 days, another for 14 days 

 — longer periods than were observed in other Lycosids. The number 

 of young is also large ; in the two cases where they were counted they 

 were respectively 210 and 302 in number. The following notes may 

 be of some interest: 



? No. 212 was seen on June 23, at 2.00 P.!M., holding her cocoon 

 beneath her cephalothorax with her first and third pairs of legs and 

 her palpi, and tearing its lining with her chelicera; she had then scraped 

 away some of the superficial layer along an equatorial line, and at one 

 or two points in this line her chelicera had penetrated to the interior. 

 At 2.22 the first of the spiderlings crawled out through one of these 

 holes, and as soon as the mother felt its motion she quickly fastened 

 the cocoon to her spinnerets and waited patiently. But no more 

 spiderlings emerging, she bit the cocoon again from 2.43 to 2.52, 

 when she suspended it again to her spinnerets. At 3.34 the second 

 and third spiderlings crawled out upon her body, and at 3.39 the fourth. 

 The mother apparently divined that the young were not emerging 

 rapidly enough, and bit the cocoon again from 3.48 to 3.55. At 

 3.59 the fifth spiderling climbed upon her, at 4.03 about eight more 



