194 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



her strength failed. The wound opened again, and, the fluids running 

 freely, she gradually lost her muscular power. But faithful to her duties, 

 the last thing which she held was the ball containing her future family. 

 Can maternal tenderness be more strikingly exhibited? 1 



Dr. T. W. Harris, whose work on "Injurious Insects" is well known, 

 found in Massachusetts a female Dolomedes lanciolatus on a large, irreg- 

 ular, loose horizontal web, at one extremity of which was situated her egg 

 bag with her young, which the parent appeared to be watching. 2 Micro- 

 mata marmorata remains constantly by its round white cocoon, which it 

 embraces closely with its long legs, while it hangs suspended by one thread 

 in the middle of its snow white tent. 



Many British spiders have the same habit of caring for their cocoons. 3 



The female of Philodromus csespiticolis conceals herself with usually two 



flattened white cocoons in the large nest, which she forms upon 



the end branch of some shrub, drawing the leaves into a con- 

 Examples . . . 



vement position with silken threads, which form a close tissue 



of a somewhat gray color. The cocoons are frequently of unequal size, 

 the largest being about one-fourth inch in diameter. If the cocoon be 

 touched the mother will not take flight, but will defend it with all her 

 power. 4 



Drassus ater makes a piano convex cocoon, which is attached by its 

 flat side to a stone or other substance, on which the cell is formed. This 

 cocoon is white or slightly yellowish at first, and afterwards becomes red- 

 dish in color. The female remains on guard by her eggs.- 5 The female 

 of Drassus lapidicolens conceals herself in a cell formed between the sur- 

 face of the earth and the under side of a stone, near which she spins some 

 threads, forming an irregular snare. In this cell, in the month of July or 

 August, she places her cocoon, covering it with dead leaves. This cocoon 

 is at first in the form of a flattened sphere, but becomes nearly round 

 when the young are about to escape. It is white, and about half an inch 

 in diameter. The mother remains with her young for some time after the 

 eggs are hatched. 6 



Clubiona holosericea makes a white flattish cocoon one-fourth inch in 

 diameter in June, and places it in a long tube shaped cell, formed on the 

 under side of a leaf, or in some crevice, as of the bark of a 

 tree. The female remains in this cell except when she leaves it 

 to pounce upon an insect passing near its opening, and which she carries 

 into the cell. The cell is divided into two chambers, in which, in the 

 month of June, male and female may be found each occupying one. The 

 spider is timid until she becomes a mother, when she will face any danger 

 rather than abandon her cocoon. Before that time, if driven from her 



Clubiona. 



1 Hentz, page 39. 

 4 Id., page 85. 



Id., page 41. SUivoley, British Spiders, page 168. 



Id., page 91. ' Id., page 97. 



