300 Miscellaneous. 



her cocoon. While feeding the spider with some flies the cave was 

 accidentally filled up, and no effort had been made to dig another, 

 although it is the custom of this genus, in natural environment, 

 to remain pretty closely within such a habitation while carrying 

 the cocoon. 



One month after the above date (June 4) the spider was 

 found with the young hatched, and massed upon her body from 

 the caput to the apex of the abdomen. The empty egg-sac still 

 clung to the spinnerets, and the younglings were grouped over 

 the upper part of the same. The abdomens of the little spiders 

 were of a light yellow colour, the legs a greenish brown or slate- 

 colour, and the whole brood were tightly compacted upon and 

 around each other, the lower layers apparently holding on to the 

 mother's body, and the upper upon those beneath. Twenty-four 

 hours thereafter the cocoon-case was dropped, and the spiderlings 

 clung to the mother alone. An examination of the cocoon showed 

 that the young had escaped through the thin seam or joint 

 formed by the union of the egg-cover with the circular cushion, 

 when the latter was pulled up at the circumference into globular 

 shape. There was no flossy wadding within, as is common with 

 orb-weaving spiders, for example — nothing biit the pinkish shells 

 of the escaped young. On June 11 about one hundred of the 

 spiderlings had abandoned the maternal perch, and were dispersed 

 over the inner surface of the jar and upon a series of lines 

 stretching from side to side. About half as many more remained 

 upon the mother's back ; but by the 13th all had dismounted. 

 Meantime they had increased in size at least one half, apparently 

 without food. 



Dr. McCook alluded to another interesting fact in the life-history 

 of Lycosa. brought to his attention by Mr. Alan Gentry. This 

 gentleman during the winter visited a pond in the vicinity of Phila- 

 delphia (Germantown) which was frozen over. He cut a slab from 

 the ice about eight to ten feet from the bank, and was surprised to 

 see several spideis running about in the water. They were passing 

 from point to point by silken lines stretched underneath the surface 

 between certain water-plants. Several were captured, but unfor- 

 tunately the specimens were not preserved. Mr. Thomas G. Gentry, 

 who saw them, says that they were Lycosids, and from his descrip- 

 tion of the eyes he is evidently correct. It is a remarkable and 

 novel fact to find these creatures thus living in full health and 

 asctivity in mid-winter ivithin the waters of a frozen pond, and so 

 far from the bank in which the burrows of their congeners are so 

 commonly found. It has been believed heretofore, and doubtless it 

 is generally true, that the Lycosids winter in deep burrows in the 

 ground, sealed up tightly to maintain a higher temperature. But 

 the above observation opens up a new and very strange chapter in 

 the winter behaviour of these spiders, as well as in the amphibious 

 nature of their habits. — Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philacl., May 13, 

 1884, p. 138. 



