PAIRING OF SPIDERS. 47 



The next day Walckenaer renewed the water in the vessels, and saw the 

 couple approach one another, lightly touch their feet, swim without stretch- 

 ing out any thread and without touching the insects \\liich had 

 been placed in the water for them, but which were all dead. At 

 five o'clock in the evening again the observer saw the male and 

 female upon the cocoon, drawn near together, the feet interlaced and mo- 

 tionless. On opening the bottle they separated. He was then astonished 

 to observe that the web that had surrounded the cocoon had disappeared. 

 Had it been employed to strengthen the cocoon ? 



The cocoon was a silken flask, attached to a plant by a short pedicle. 

 It was in part immersed within the water. It was rounded, flat- 

 _, toned, about three lines in diameter, was formed of a fine thread 



of a very compact tissue, thin as an onion peel, and difficult to 

 tear. It contained forty eggs, not agglutinated, globular, of a pale yel- 

 low color. 



On the first of April Walckenaer again observed in the jar where the 

 spiders were confined a little bubble of air and a web larger than the 

 former had been. After five days' absence, April 6th he observed that 

 the spiders had detached the cocoon, in order to sink it to the bottom of 

 the bottle. The water was changed in the vessel and immediately they 

 swam about with delight, refreshed themselves, reunited near the cocoon, 

 and caressed each other with their feet. On the 7th of April he decanted 

 the water of the jar into a cistern. The Argyronetas, troubled by the 

 sudden movement of the flood, swam with great rapidity, and the female 

 having 'recovered her cocoon in the midst of the water, seized it, embraced 

 it with her feet and sought to buoy it up. 



One of the most interesting and satisfactory accounts of the act of pair- 

 ing among Tubeweavers is given by Mr. Campbell from observations on 

 Tegenaria guyonii. 1 The male was placed in a bottle contain- 



''^ing a female which had been mature for a fortnight. He was 

 gnyonii. 



left within the vessel in which he had been lodged, but the 



cover was removed therefrom. Notwithstanding the glass wall which sep- 

 arated him from the female, he soon became conscious of her presence, 

 and issuing from his own quarters approached her. The following morn- 

 ing he was standing with the first pair of legs over the female, and 

 his maxillae resting on her abdomen, while she was crouching motion- 

 less, with her head in an opposite direction. Both were in 

 the same position the next morning, August 7th, 7 A. M. At 

 10 A. M. the male became restless, and wandered about the 

 bottle with spinnerets extended, returning every now and then to 

 place his palps upon the female. After each action he jerked his abdomen 



1 On the Pairing of Tegenaria guyonii Guer., with a Description of certain Organs in the 

 Abdominal Sexual Region of the Male. By F. Maule Campbell, F. L. S. Linn. Soc. Jour. 

 Zool., Vol. XVI., page 163. 



