126 SPIDERS: THEIR STRUCTURE AND HABITS. 



similar to the former ; and the result is a well-protected ball of 

 eggs, whose diameter is about equal to the length of her own 

 body. The number of eggs in a cocoon varies widely in the 

 different species, from the Salticus scaiims^ which lays about 15 

 eggs only, to the Epeira quadrata, with 1000 or more. 



The devotion of the mother to her cocoon is beautiful. Many 

 of the Hunting Spiders carry it about with them, attached usually 

 to the spinnerets, but, in some cases, to the breastplate (see 

 Plate 12, Fig. 2); and two species of Retiary Spiders, viz: — 

 Theridion Carolinwn and Liiiyphia crypt icok?is, do the same. 

 These display the utmost tenacity in guarding their charge, refusing 

 to part with it even when attacked by a more powerful enemy. The 

 rest deposit their cocoons (either uncovered or enclosed in a 

 cell) beneath stones, on the under-side of leaves, under the loose 

 bark of trees, or in crevices of walls, etc. ; and many keep watch 

 and ward over them during the winter months. 



When the young spiders issue from the egg, they are enclosed 

 in a membranous envelope, which they do not throw off until the 

 time when they quit the cocoon, — a period depending in part 

 upon the temperature, but generally occurring about the months of 

 April or May. In the case of a cocoon found by me during the 

 month of October, under some loose bark in the fields, and kept 

 indoors without any artificial heat through a very mild winter, I 

 found that by the first week in February the young were all 

 hatched, and busy filling their prison with a labyrinth of webs. A 

 cocoon of the Epeira diade7na, found with the mother in Novem- 

 ber, was subjected to artificial warmth from the 13th of February, 

 and before the end of the month nearly a dozen young ones had 

 issued from it and begun weaving with the utmost alacrity. 



After throwing off their first integument on leaving the cocoon, 

 the young spiders undergo several other moults before they arrive 

 at maturity. The number of these varies with the species. An 

 Epeira has been observed to moult five times in four months from 

 the day of its quitting the egg ; when it appeared to have reached 

 maturity. A Tegeiiaria civilis, — one of the House Spiders, as the 

 name implies, — has been known to moult nine times in the first 

 fourteen or fifteen months of its existence, after which its 

 development was complete. In these cases, it was noticed that 

 the intervals between the moults were always much shorter in the 

 summer than in the winter months. 



Connected with the renewal of integuments is the reproduc- 

 tion of the limbs. If a leg, or a palpus, or even a spinneret, be 

 amputated or mutilated, the member is found to be restored, 

 generally with enlarged dimensions, at the next period of 

 moulting. 



