° 340 ARACHNIDA——-ARANEAE CHAP, 
The number of moults, and the intervals at which they occur, 
no doubt vary with different species. In the vase of Argiope 
aurelia, Pollock! has found that the female moults nine times 
after leaving the cocoon, the first ecdysis occurring after an 
interval of from one to two months, according to the abundance 
or scarcity of food. The subsequent intervals gradually increase 
from about a fortnight to something over three weeks. 
Behaviour of the Newly-hatched Spider.—The mode of life 
of a spider just freed from the cocoon will of course vary greatly 
according to the Family to which it belongs. 
The EPEIRIDAE are the builders of the familiar wheel or orb- 
web. Spiders of this Family usually remain together on friendly 
terms for a week or more after leaving the nest. Most of the 
time they are congregated in a ball-like mass, perhaps for the 
sake of warmth, but upon being touched or shaken they im- 
mediately disperse along the multitudinous fine nes which they 
have spun in all directions, to reassemble as soon as the panic 
has subsided. Such a ball of the yellow and black offspring of 
the large Garden-spider, Hpeira diademata, is no uncommon 
sight in the early autumn, and the shower of “ golden rain ” that 
results from their disturbance is not likely to be forgotten if it 
has ever been observed by the reader. This harmonious family 
life only continues as long as the young spiders are unable to 
feed—a period which, in some of the larger species, is said to 
extend to ten days or a fortnight. 
Individual life then commences, and each member of the dis- 
persed group sets up housekeeping on its own account, con- 
structing at the first attempt a snare in all respects similar, 
except in size, to those of its parent. 
Of course the young Spiders have not migrated far, and a 
bush may frequently be seen covered by the often contiguous 
nets of the members of a single brood. This, as Dr. M‘Cook 
thinks, is the true explanation of some of the cases of “gregarious 
spiders” which Darwin * and other naturalists have occasionally 
described, though social spiders exist (see Uloborus, p. 411). 
Very similar habits obtain among the THERIDIIDAE, or line- 
weaving spiders, a familiar example of which is the pretty little 
Theridion sisyphium, whose highly-irregular snare may be found 
on any holly bush during the summer months. 
1 Ann. Nat. Hist. (3), xv., W865, p. 459. 2 Voyage of the Beagle. 
