GENERAL COCOONING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 



141 



was empty of young, whose first moults, however, were within the cocoon, 

 as were also a few unhatched eggs, which are yellowish spheres three mil- 

 limeters in diameter. Three small openings in the case showed where- tin 

 spiderlings had escaped. Both cocoon and eggs are shown natural size in 

 the accompanying figure. (Fig. 173.) 



The interior of this cocoon was without any flossy lining or padding, 

 resembling thus the egg sac of the Lycosidse generally. A curious flap 

 overlapped the cocoon at one side, whose use I could not conjecture, unless 

 it may have served to attach the object to the mother's body, or suspend 

 it within her burrow ; or perhaps it was simply a remnant of material 

 which had remained after the eggs were rolled up within the silken rug 

 upon which they are proba- 

 bly deposited after the man- 

 ner which I have shown to 

 exist in the genus Lycosa. 1 



The janitor who received 

 the box containing this spi- 

 der and placed it in my 

 room was at the time new 

 in his position, and did not 

 understand the importance of 



observing all the 

 Mode of 



particulars in the 

 Carrying. | 



habits or living 

 creatures sent to the Acad- 

 emy. He therefore failed to 

 make any notes, but told 

 me, when questioned, that 

 he believed the cocoon was 

 attached to the lower part 

 of the spider's body when 

 it arrived. No doubt this 

 is a correct observation, and we may assume with some degree of certainty 

 that the large egg sac of the Theraposids is carried by the mother, lashed 

 to the spinnerets at the apex of the abdomen, precisely as in the case of 

 Lycosids, whose well known habit is familiar to every frequenter of our 

 fields. 



This cocoon is exhibited in my collection of aranead architecture de- 

 posited in the Philadelphia Academy, and is the only one, as far as I 

 have been able to learn, exhibited in any similar institution. A second 

 specimen in my possession is similar to this, except that the silken sac is 



FIG. 173. Cocoon and eggs of the Tarantula (Mygale). 

 Natural size. 



1 See Proceedings Academy Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1884, page 138, my note on 

 " How Lycosa fabricates her round Cocoon." 



