246 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



In these particulars the young of Atypus differ little, perhaps, I may 

 say, not at all, from the habits of Lycosids, after they have left their 

 mother's hack and started housekeeping for themselves. Indeed, the re- 

 semblance has a wider range among the tribes, inasmuch as Orbweavers, 

 Laterigrades, and Saltigrades show the same disposition to seek elevated 

 objects immediately after exode, and thence procure dispersion by means 

 of the wind. 



The mother Atypus may occasionally carry its young upon its back 

 during residence within the parental nest, but has not been seen doing 

 this outside of its cave. This fact is not strange, since it rarely leaves 

 its tube at all, but spends its entire life within its silken domicile, which 

 is for it alike home, snare, nursery, and grave. According to Mr. Knock, 

 maturity is not reached until the Atypus is at least four years old. 



The young of Atypus piceus were seen by Mr. Knock, September 2r>th, 

 in the same nest with the female, looking very white and moving feebly, 

 as evidently just hatched. He found the young nested with the mother 

 at various dates through September, October, November, and again in 

 March and April of the year following. It is thus established that after 

 the young leave the cocoon in August and September, they remain with 

 their mother during the entire autumn and winter, and during the early 

 spring until the weather is mild enough to justify their leaving the ma- 

 ternal home and establishing nests of their own. 



What they feed upon during this period is not known. Much of the 

 time, no doubt, they are in a torpid condition, requiring no food. There 

 is not the slightest evidence that they prey upon one another. 

 Nurture j^ j g p OSS ible that the mother may provide food for them, and, 

 indeed, this is highly probable. If so, these troglodyte spiders 

 furnish a beautiful example of domesticity ; and the maternal 

 care shown by creatures so unprepossessing in personal appearance and 

 occupants of such gloomy homes, is not excelled by that of any of the 

 known lower animals. I might, perhaps, truthfully add that the more 

 highly organized vertebrates scarcely exhibit a greater amount of maternal 

 tenderness and care. 



The immense cocoon of Mygale, sometimes as large as a hen's egg, is 

 stocked with as many as two thousand eggs. In Cayenne the little My- 

 galida3, when issuing from the cocoon, are attacked and de- 

 Young youred by red ants, and are too feeble to offer effectual resist- 

 ance. Walckenaer describes the contents of a cocoon of Mygale 

 avicularia from Cayenne, which was infested by a multitude of 

 parasitic Cynips. Numbers of young spiders were found therein. They 

 were about two lines long, of uniform yellowish white color, except at the 

 eye space, which was brown. The long spinnerets showed at the apex 

 of the abdomen. The mandibles were prominent and curved, the eyes 

 very apparent. All the characteristics of the genus were well developed. 



in the 

 Nest. 



Taran- 

 tulas. 



