1903.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA, 127 



Thargalia brivittata (Keys.). 



Cocooning. — The end of this process only was seen. The discoidal 

 cocoon was satiny-white and placed at the angle of the floor and wall 

 of the cage ; its base was closely apposed to these surfaces so as to be 

 bent at a right angle, while the cover (of smaller diameter than the 

 base) was arched from the floor to the wall. In completing this cover 

 the spider brushes her spinnerets more forward and backward than 

 from side to side, flexing her body about energetically, while keeping 

 her feet in one position upon the edge of the cocoon; then she changes 

 her position over the cocoon, and repeats this process. I watched 

 her in this process for half an hour, after which she covered the surface 

 of the cocoon with small particles of dirt. 

 Drassus neglectus Keys. 



Guarding of the Cocoon. — A female of this species was caught on 

 June 10, and made a thick web within her cage. On the evening of 

 July 7 she made her cocoon, which was white in color, discoidal with 

 circular outline, one side flattened and the opposite side somewhat 

 arched. This cocoon was loose, not fastened to any object, and she 

 held its margin with her chelicera, pressing her cephalothorax against 

 it and at times partially embracing it with her legs. Most of the time 

 she held it in one corner of the cage, but sometimes carried it about 

 to different portions of the cage. When I touched her she still clung 

 to it without moving ; flies were put in her cage almost daily, but she 

 paid no attention to them, even though at times they touched her. She 

 died on July 21, still holding the cocoon in death. 



This observation is narrated, since I know of no other Drassid that 

 guards its cocoon so carefully, nor of any that makes such a thick and 

 large web. 



General Considerations. 



History of Our Knowledge. — In 1701 Leeuwenhoek, the father of 

 histology, wrote: "I never was so happy as to see the Spiders couple, 

 .... but what shall we say, the Coition of Spiders must differ funda- 

 mentally from other Creatures, since their Matrix is placed in the vipper 

 part of their Belly." He did not know of the observations of Lister, 

 who in 1678 discovered that the male spider fertilizes the female by 

 applying the enlarged terminal joint of his maxillary palpus to her 

 epigynum. The discovery has been confirmed by a long list of obser- 

 vers, though a list small in comparison with the number who have 

 sought in vain to see the process : Ausserer, Bertkau, Blackwall, Camp- 

 bell, Clerck, De Geer, Duges, Emerton, Fickert, Hasselt, Hentz, Her- 



