NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN ARANEID^ — RAINBOW. 223 



exactly like A. ivagneri. Indeed, the life-history of these two 

 widely distinct species appears to be exactly similar in every 

 detail. 



A. wagneri is apparently far from being particular as to tlie 

 material it uses for its nests. At the moment of writing I have 

 before me four examples of paper nests collected by me at Can- 

 terbury. Notwithstanding that there was no shortage of 

 material in the shape of leaves available for nests, four individuals 

 had actually utilised scraps of newspaper for the purpose. Two 

 of these examples are rolled so as to form cylindrical retreats, 

 one is in the form of an elongated cone, and the fourth is simply 

 folded. Each of these nests have their edges held in position 

 with silk, and the interior of the chamber lined in the usual 

 manner with the same material. .Messrs. Philip de la Garde, 

 R.N., and J. J. Walker, R.N., each collected specimens of such 

 paper nests made by A. ivagneri on Garden Island, Port Jackson, 

 so that the habit of utilising such material does not appear to be 

 uncommon. 



The cocoon of Araneus heroine is about an inch and a half 

 long and half an inch wide; it is ovate, densely matted, and the 

 silk of which it is composed is dark green. The cocoon is 

 usually located near the extremity of a small branch, and is 

 surrounded and held in position by an irregular network of fine 

 lines. Both the density of the cocoon and the labyrinthine lines 

 surrounding it must be decidedly protective. The cocoons of 

 some spiders are penetrated by the stings of parasitic wasps, but 

 those of many species of Argiopidse are rendered fairly immune 

 from attack by the defensive retitelarian network that surround- 

 them. Within the cocoon there is, of course, the ova-sac ; this 

 latter is invariably white, of a paper-like texture, and it encloses 

 a number of yellowish eggs surrounded by yellowish, flocculent 

 silk. Some species of Araneus enclose three small ova-sacs in 

 their cocoons. 



When the time arrives for the Argiopid spiderlings to make 

 their appearance, they cut a small opening at the apex of the 

 cocoon, but they are probably a few days old when they do this, 

 as they have already passed through one moult. This is proved 

 by the fact that when a cocoon is opened numbers of cast skins 

 are seen. In cutting their way out, they are not assisted by the 

 mother. In fact she almost invariably dies long before the 

 young ones make their appearance. Professor B. G. Wilder, an 

 American naturalist, was of opinion that birds were instrumental 

 in aiding the escape of youngspiders fi hi eir cocoons, because 

 he had observed a bird, about the size of a sparrow, pulling at a 



