PARADISE KEY SAFFORD. 



393 



herself in an iron ring isolated by water, fed with flies, and deprived 

 of her silk each day. Each of the cocoons of this spider contains 

 from 500 to 1,000 eggs. The newly hatched young show cannibalistic 

 propensities from the very beginning; for they not only feed upon 

 small insects which come in their way, but they devour one another. 

 After two or three weeks in a web shared in common they scatter 

 and each female proceeds to spin a web for herself. From this time 

 they must be kept separate, or they would 

 eat one another. In removing the silk the 

 spider is gently seized and secured in a pair 

 of stocks, and the thread steadily and 

 carefully pulled from her spinnerets until 

 it is exhausted. In this way a spider is 

 made to yield about an ounce of silk dur- 

 ing the summer. The thread is smoother, 

 finer, and more brightly colored than that 

 of the silkworm. 1 



As shown in the illustration, the male is 

 much smaller than the female, from which 



it is also dis- 

 tinguished by 

 its peculiar 

 palpi, which 

 correspond to 

 claws of 

 scorpions and 

 the enormous 

 pincers of the 

 w hip scor- 

 pion shown on plate 36, but which are 

 in the spiders specialized into sexual 

 organs. Doctor Wilder, who wag the 

 first to breed this species for their silk, 

 contrasts the handsome female with the 

 insignificant male, who neither toils 

 nor spins, and who keeps at a respect- 

 ful distance except when mating, and even then it is not unusual for 

 the ogress bride to eat him up. 2 



The Golden Miranda (also known as Epeira, or Argiope riparia) 

 is a beautiful, black and yellow spider of the marshes (fig. 16). The 

 female is nearly an inch in length, while the male is only about one- 

 fourth as long, similarly colored, but with the markings less distinct 

 and with very large palpi. The females make webs about 2 feet in 



1 See Emerton, J. H., The Structure and Habits of Spiders, pp. 70-72. 1878. 



2 See Wilder, B. G., How my new acquaintances spin. Atlantic Monthly, 18 : 130. 1866. 



Fig. 16. — Miranda aurantia, 

 adult female and male. 

 The female often devours 

 hee pygmy bridegroom at 

 the end of the honey- 

 MOON. Nat. size. 



Fig. 15. — Nephila clavipes, adult 

 female and male. its golden 

 yellow silk has been spun 

 and woven into bed curtains. 

 Nat. size. 



