CHAP. XIII 



ARACHNIDA 



189 



Eggs. 



whenever he tries to approach his mate, for if not in a mood 

 to receive him, she will dart out and attack him. At times 

 she may even kill and eat him ! His cautious courting of her 

 may be seen fairly often. Even if he is accepted and saves 

 his life, it is not of long duration, for he dies soon after 

 mating. 



The eggs are laid in the autumn, some hundreds 

 together, inside a round bag-like mass of golden 

 silk threads, which is fixed inside a crack in the bark of a tree, 

 or under the cross-bar of a 

 fence. This egg -bag, or egg 

 " cocoon," as it is often called, 

 may be f of an inch in dia- 

 meter. The young, bright 

 yellow spiders may hatch out 

 in a few weeks, but more often 

 they remain dormant the whole 

 winter. When they first emerge 

 they cling together for about a 

 week, in or close by the cocoon, 

 forming a golden ball. If this 

 ball is touched, the little 

 "spiderlings " immediately 

 drop a short distance on silk 

 threads (Fig. 1 1 9) and then after 

 a time climb up them again. 



Until they have 



moulted their first 

 skins, the young 



spiders are unable to feed, but FlQ - 119 - 

 as soon as this is possible, they 

 disperse, for they will no longer 

 live peaceably together. If food is scarce they will fre- 

 quently take to cannibalism ! When first hatched they are 

 yellow with a black patch on the abdomen and no white 

 markings, but in most respects they resemble their parents ; 

 they only gradually, however, become fully mature, usually 

 after about nine moults. When moulting, the spider assumes 

 first the attitude shown in Fig. 120, a; the skin then splits, 

 and the spider wriggles its way out and drops as shown in 

 Fig. 120, 6, remaining thus suspended for some 15 minutes 



<eira diademata. A 

 swarm of young spielers dropping 

 from a " cocoon." 



