STUDIES IN AUSTRALIAN ARANEID.E RAINBOW. 45 



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when I saw suspended from a little prickly (tree) shrub. what'I 

 supposed to be two egg-cases or cocoons of a Celrenia, sp. As 



they looked rather fresh I pulled one off, and __ 



on turning it over in my hand I observed 

 that it was not round. I then examined it 

 with my lens, and, lo ! and behold, it was a 

 spider ! I can assure you it was the biggest 

 surprise I have received for many a day.' 

 In a further letter my correspondent tells 

 me the cocoons are always suspended in a 

 line, and that the spider in each instance 

 he has observed was always clinging to the 

 bottom one. Each cocoon is globose, dark 

 brown, and armed, burr-like, with a number 

 of sharp tubercles or spines, and these latter 

 are each covered with yellow silk. This 

 peculiarity is especially interesting in that 

 the abdomen of the spider is also of a dark 

 brown colour, and is armed with a number 

 of tubercles, each of which is yellow nt its 

 apex. As the spiders were alive when they 

 reached me, I put them in a box in which 

 I had first of all suspended their cocoons. 

 Each spider upon being introduced to its 

 string of cocoons soon took up its position 

 on the lower egg-sac, which position it 

 maintained, as though on guard, until the 



preparation of this paper rendered it pj a o Cocoons with 



necessary for me to kill it. Each cocoon is spider, C. calotoiii's, 

 hard and capable of bearing considerable Rainb., attached. 

 pressure. Within, the walls are smooth, 



and the chamber is filled with loose flocoulent silk, amidst the 

 threads of which some thirty eggs repose in security. The 

 number of ova enclosed in the cocoons varies somewhat. With- 

 out, the walls are coloured and armed as previously described. 

 The cocoons, of which apparently there may be five, or six, or 

 eight, are suspended one under the other, like a number of 

 beads, and each is attached to its neighbour by fine, silken 

 threads (fig. 2). 



Both the spider and its cocoons form admirable examples of 

 protective formation and colouration. The former, wdien resting 

 upon a twig, has the appearance of a woody, wart-like excrescence, 

 which must serve it not only in shielding it from predatory foes, 

 but also aid it in the capture of unsuspecting prey. The 

 Celaaniea?, although included in the family Argiopidse, do not fab- 



