76 REPORT 1844. 



Spiders, though extremely voracious, are capable of enduring long absti- 

 nence from food. A young female Theridion quadripunctatum, captured in 

 August 1829, was placed in a phial and fed with flies till the 15th of October, 

 in the same year, during which period it accomplished its final moult and at- 

 tained maturity. It was then removed to a smaller phial, which was closely 

 corked and locked up in a book-case, its supply of food being at the same 

 time discontinued. In this situation it remained till the 30th of April 1831, on 

 which day it died, without receiving the slightest nourishment of any descrip- 

 tion. Throughout its captivity it never failed to produce a new snare when 

 an old one was removed, which was frequently the case ; and it is a fact par- 

 ticularly deserving of attention, that the alvine evacuations were continued, 

 in minute quantities and at very distant intervals, to the termination of its ex- 

 istence*. 



When about to deposit their eggs, spiders usually spin for their reception 

 silken cccoons displaying much diversity of form, size, colour, and con- 

 sistency. Those of the Lycosa have a lenticular, or spherical figure and 

 compact structure, with the exception of a narrow zone of a delicate texture 

 by which they are encircled. In constructing their cocoons, these spiders 

 slightly connect the margins of the two compact portions, beneath which the 

 thin fabric of the zone is folded. This simple contrivance afibrds an ad- 

 mirable provision for the development of the young in the foetal state by an 

 enlarged capacity in the cocoons consequent on the margins of the compact 

 parts becoming detached by the expansive force within, the eventual libera- 

 tion of the young being eflected by the rupture of the zone. 



Theridion callens fabricates a very remarkable balloon-shaped cocoon about 

 one-eighth of an inch in diameter. It is composed of soft silk of a loose 

 texture and pale brown colour, enclosed in an irregular network of coarse, 

 dark red-brown silk ; several of the lines composing this network unite near 

 the lower and smaller extremity of the cocoon, leaving intervals there through 

 which the young pass when they quit it, and, being cemented together 

 throughout the remainder of their extent, form a slender stem, varying from 

 one-tenth to half of an inch in length, by which the cocoon is attached to 

 the surface of stones and fi-agments of rock, resembling in its figure and erect 

 position some of the minute plants belonging to the class Cryptogamia. The 

 eggs are large, considering the small size of the spider, five or six in number, 

 spherical, not agglutinated together, and of a brown colour ■\. 



An elegant vase-shaped cocoon, composed of white silk of a fine compact 

 texture, and attached by a short foot-stalk to rushes, the stems of grass, 

 heath, and gorse, is constructed by Agelena brimnea ; it measures about one- 

 fourth of an inch in diameter, and contains from forty to fifty yellowish-white, 

 spherical eggs enveloped in white silk connected with the interior of the 

 cocoon contiguous to the foot-stalk. Greatly to the disadvantage of its ap- 

 pearance, the entire cocoon is smeared with moist soil, which drying serves to 

 protect it from the weather, and as an additional security, the extremity is 

 closed and directed downwards. 



Theridion riparium fabricates a slender, conical tube of silk of a very slight 

 texture, measuring from one and a half to two and a half inches in length, 

 and about half an inch in diameter at its lower extremity. It is closed above, 

 open below, thickly covered externally with bits of indurated earth, small 

 stones, and withered leaves and flowers, which are incorporated with it, and 

 is suspended perpendicularly, by lines attached to its sides and apex, in the 

 irregular snare constructed by this species. In the upper part of this singular 



* Researches in Zoology, pp. 302, 303. 



f Transactions of the Linnaean Society, v3l. xviii. p. 629. 



