1903.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 71 



surface of his sternum, and he then appUed the tips of his palpal organs 

 alternately to this part of his sternum, and rubbed them against it; 

 this was evidently the process of taking the sperm into his palpi, though 

 I could not see the drop at this time. This continued from 10.32 to 

 10.37, then he ceased, and did not repeat the process up to 11.40, when 

 I ended the observation. 



Cocooning. — This was seen only once. 9 No. 186, on June 21, at 

 11.35 P.M., was found spinning on the floor in a corner of the cage, 

 slowly and with frequent pauses. She soon ceased, but began again 

 at 1.30, and at 1.50 had made, upon a scaffolding of lines passing from 

 the floor to the wall and inclined at an angle of 40'^, a white, circular 

 silken disk, the base of the cocoon. The diameter of this base was 

 about equal to the length of her body. She continued to spin upon 

 it up to 2.27, but slowly and with frequent rests. In the earlier 

 portion of this time the spinnerets were brushed from side to side, 

 before backward rather than from side to side, and she rotated her body 

 l)ut little. In the later portion she spun mainly upon the margin of 

 the base, and formed there a barely perceptible wall of curled threads 

 made by elevating her spinnerets after each stroke, and rotated her 

 body while spinning. She stood with the tips of her palpi and her 

 first and second pairs of feet upon the edge of the silken disk (base), 

 her other feet upon the surrounding scaffolding. At 2.27 she stood 

 quiet over the base with her head turned toward its highest edge, 

 discharged a large drop of yellowish fluid of viscid consistency upon 

 the centre of the cocoon base, and, while the upper surface of this 

 drop still adhered to her epigynum, dropped the ova into it one by 

 one. At 2.31| she started to break loose from this drop, but half a 

 minute passed before she w^as able to do this, the surface of the drop 

 adhered to her so firmly. At 2.32 she commenced spinning the cover 

 to the egg mass with a brushing movement of the spinnerets, and, 

 except for a pause from 2.35 to 2.37^, this continued up to 2.57, Thus 

 the egg mass (within its viscid drop) was flattened down and was evenly 

 covered with silk. The time from 2.57 to 3.01 was occupied in biting 

 loose the margin of the cocoon from the surrounding scaffolding. 

 The cocoon at this stage was lenticular, and the margin of the base 

 projected beyond the cover. At 3.02 she held it beneath her cepha- 

 lothorax, holding it there with her third pair of legs and slowly 

 revolving it with her palpi and chelicera; at the same time she spun 

 vipon it, holding her abdomen bent vertically downward. She then 

 fastened it to her spinnerets and so carried it about, spun on it for 

 a short time again at 3.26, then hung it definitely to her spinnerets 

 and was not seen to spin upon it any more that day. 



