116 On the Oviposition &c. o/'Agelena labyrintliica. 



When completed the animal takes up its position upon it 

 or close at hand, and can with difficulty be frightened away, 

 but clings to it tenaciously when interfered with. 



The whole process of cocoon construction involves many 

 hours of almost incessant work in the case of this species. 

 The work, moreover, is very varied and perfectly regular in 

 the sequence of its variations in the case of different indi- 

 viduals of the species. Of course each spider has no guide 

 but its own instinctive urging in the performance of this 

 complicated operation. A curious proof of its entire depen- 

 dence upon instinct was furnished in the case of one spider 

 from which the eggs were removed immediately after they 

 had been laid. The creature nevertheless went through 

 the whole operation, including the construction and subse- 

 quent guarding of the box or case described above, although 

 the labour was, of course, entirely useless. 



This fact recalls Fabre's remarkable experiments upon 

 bees *. These insects construct cells, introduce a certain 

 amount of honey and pollen, then insert the abdomen 

 and lay an &gg, and immediately afterwards seal up the 

 orifice with a pellet of earth, which they hold in their 

 jaws ready for the purpose during the act of oviposition. 

 They thus secure to their larvee a sufficiency of food, and at 

 the same time take the utmost precaution to exclude any 

 ichneumon or other injurious insect which might visit the 

 cell were they to desert it for a moment after laying in order 

 to seek material to plaster up the mouth. Nevertheless, when 

 he made a hole in the lower part of the cell, perfectly obvious 

 to the bee, and allowed the honey and even the egg to drop 

 out under its very eyes, it proceeded to seal up the cell with 

 all despatch, paying no attention to the breach which evidently 

 nullified all its labour. 



A hole made at the top of the cell it would repair, seeing, 

 as Fabre thinks, but an imperfection in the work upon which 

 it was then engaged ; but to go back to its previous occupa- 

 tion of storing food, and to set right anything that might 

 have gone wrong in that department, required an effort of 

 recollection and reasoning quite beyond the insect's mental 

 powers. 



So the spider, in laying its eggs, bestows infinite pains in 

 depositing them in a position of the greatest security ; but 

 when the time has come for buikling the cocoon the creature 

 is absorbed in the elaborate details of its construction, and 



* Fabre, ' Nouveaux Souvenirs entomolo<>iqnes,' ch. x. 



