209 [-Wilder. 



head downward and will instantly turn over if the vessel containin"- 

 them be inverted. 



The eggs are laid in a rounded, or flattened mass about one half an 

 inch in diameter ; they are .04 to .05 of an inch in diameter, white and 

 at first slightly agglutinated together, but become yellowish and easily 

 separable as the time for hatching arrives, which, in the case of some 

 eggs laid this fall was in about thirty days ; the young spiders are yel- 

 low with whitish legs, which however soon become darker in color 

 while the abdomen presents some faint markings on its surface ; some 

 have cast one skin within a few days and can spin a thread within a 

 week after leaving the egg; but of their own accord they do not leave 

 the cavity of the cocoon for some time, during which, as far as I know, 

 they take no food, excepting perhaps that they devour one another, 

 but seem to undergo an increase of the logs and cephalothorax at the 

 expense of the abdomen ; but for some reason, whether on account 

 of th^ elements, or birds, or other insects, or the attacks upon one an- 

 other, I cannot say, only five or six out of the five or six hundred 

 hatched in any one cocoon ever come to maturity in the natural 

 state. 



The mass of eggs is enclosed in a loose silken cocoon, the threads 

 of which are very large and strong, especially the outer ones, which 

 are y^^oo ^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^ diameter while the interior ones are •5^Vo °^ 

 an inch in diameter; this cocoon weighs from .320 to .655 of a grain. 



The groAvn females, which I have kept alive for one month or more, 

 in boxes or in webs constructed in my room in South Carolina, have 

 all readily taken, from the point of a needle, live flies or bits of fresh 

 chicken's liver, from which they suck the juices ; they likewise take 

 water from the point of a stick or hair pencil, holding the drop be- 

 tween the palj)i and the jaws while it is slowly swallowed ; one spider 

 has thus taken six drops of water in succession. 



Much more might be related concerning the habits of the insect, of 

 the manner of keeping and feeding the young, of the means of secur- 

 ing the spider while its silk is obtained, and of the various apparatus 

 employed ; but I am so impressed with the peculiarities thus far ob- 

 served in themselves, and with the beauty and strength of the silk that 

 if time and means permit, I shall continue the inquiry as far as possi- 

 ble, and will defer to a future occasion a more complete account of the 

 spider, its habits, anatomy and embryology, and of the various qual- 

 ities of its silk, with whatever conclusion can be reached concerning 

 the practicability of rearing the young, and also how flir it is possible 

 to apply the same method of extraction to the silk worm, and other 

 silk producing larva3. 



Note. April 2d, 1866. Some of these spiders, hatched in October, 1865, are 

 now more than an inch in length. 



PROCEEDINaS B. 8. If. H.— VOL. X. 14 APRLL, 1836. 



