196 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND TIIKIR SPINNINGWORK. 



the part of the big spider. Might not a deliberate intention to feed her 

 young be excluded from the act of this mother Dolomede on precisely 

 the same ground ? 



Quite as extraordinary as the above is the behavior of a little Jumping 

 spider, Attus nubillus, related by the same observer. 1 This spider de- 

 posited her cocoon, after the manner of her genus, within a couple of 

 curled leaves of prickly Smilax rotundifolia, Mrs. Treat opened the 

 nest and found that the spiders were apparently just hatched, and were 

 of a pale green color. The mother was not then in sight, but knowing 

 that Attus remains with and cares for her young until they leave the 

 nest, the observer waited and was rewarded by witnessing the little mother's 

 return. For a time she seemed to look with dismay upon her pretty home 

 torn asunder, and her spiderlings scattered around, but soon proceeded to 

 gather the younglings together and tuck them back under the 

 ersona s ji[ cen canO py.. One spiderling, which had wandered farther than 



Young 



the res t 



ver g e of the leaf, was picked up bodily, as a cat 



would carry its kitten, and put back into the flossy interior of 

 the cocoon. Then the mother set about repairing her damaged cocoon ; 

 and after the rent was mended the young were not visible. She also 

 tried to bring the enclosing leaves together again, but presently abandoned 

 that effort. 



She remained on the outside of the nest, and no threatened danger 

 would induce her to leave. She sprang towards the observer's hand, and 

 fiercely grasped the point of a pencil thrust near her. Several times 

 daily the nest was visited, and the mother was found persistently pres- 

 ent until the third day, when she was missed. A second -time the cocoon 

 was opened, and the spiderlings found to have made the first moult, and 

 were crawling about slowly. When the mother came back and perceived 

 her young disturbed again, she varied her behavior so far as to look 

 around for the cause of the disaster spying around leaves, and over and 

 under them. Finding nothing, she soon became quiet, put her brood 



within the cocoon once more, and again repaired the damage. 

 ,, ... This completed, she went to work to bring the leaves together. 



The tips now stood two inches apart, while at the base or stem 

 end the space was half an inch. The leaves were thick and leathery, and 

 the petioles stiff and firm. She fastened a thread of silk to one leaf and 

 then to the other, and went back and forth strengthening and shortening 

 the lines, and slowly bringing the leaves together. The next morning they 

 were found quite joined, and the interior entirely hidden. 



A third time, during the mother's absence, the leaves were sepamtcd 

 without disturbing the young within their cocoon. When the mother re- 

 turned she did not attempt to reconnect the leaves. In a day or two 



"My Garden Pets," pages (14 (>S. 



