GENERAL COCOONING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 



123 



Agalena 



laby- 



rinthea. 



Agalena labyrinthea of Europe resembles in its general habits the Aga- 

 lena nsevia of America. According to Walckenaer the female makes her 

 single cocoon in the month of August, which she encloses within 

 a huge purse like web full of soil and vegetable detritus. When 

 the web is removed, the cocoon is seen to be about the size of the 

 end of one's thumb, and woven of a fine silken tissue enveloped 

 by clods of earth. Next to these is another envelope of silk, and thru, 

 finally, particles of soil so strongly adhering to the cocoon that they cannot 

 well be separated. When the cocoon is opened, it is found to be formed 

 of a thick, tough web. On the exterior it is beautifully white and perfectly 

 polished. It contains as high as one hundred and thirty-four eggs of a 

 greenish yellow color. 1 



The well known cellar spider, Tegenaria derhamii, 2 which is widely 



FIG. 130. 



FIG. 131. 



FIG. ISO. Snare of Tegenaria derhamii in a cellar window, with three cocoons suspended thereto. 

 FIG. 131. One cocoon, natural size. 



Tege- 

 naria. 



distributed over both hemispheres, conceals her eggs within a flattened 

 ball or hemisphere of soft silk, somewhere in the neighborhood 

 of her snare. Sometimes this is suspended by threads to the 

 snare itself (see Vol. I., page 239, Fig. 221), or again is attached 

 directly to it, and the envelope interwoven with the fibre of the web, so 

 that it has much the appearance of a rounded button upon a coat. Fig. 130 



1 Walckenaer, Apteres, Vol. II., page 22. 



2 I have supposed that the Medicinal spider of Hentz, Tegenaria medicinalis, is identi- 

 cal with this species, and have so used the name in Vol. I. Mr. Emerton, however, in a 

 recent paper, declares Hentz's Tegenaria medicinalis to be a Coelotes, and separate from T. 

 derhamii. He classifies as Coalotes medicinalis the spider that I have heretofore considered 

 Hentz's Tegenaria persica. See Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. VIII., 1889-90, New Eng. Spiders 

 of the Families Drassidse, etc. 



