80 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



(Figs. 43, 44, o.c) is usually a thin, stiff, parchment like substance, that 

 feels dry, and crackles under the touch, as though glazed. It is substan- 

 tially water tight. I have found several cocoons of a softer 

 material, and thicker, much like a delicate yellow felt. 

 The glazing above mentioned is not the result of ageing 

 or weathering simply, but is produced by the action of 

 the spider herself, perhaps by the overspreading of the 

 viscid secretion which forms the beads on the spirals of 

 a snare. 



When this outer case is cut away there is first pre- 

 sented a flossy envelope (f.e) of soft yellowish silk, which 

 quite surrounds the contents of the bowl. Next is a dark 

 a. fe, flossy brown pyriform or spherical pad of spinningwork (p.d), 



envelope inside the , . , ,1,1 i . i . 1 1 i 



outer case, oc; p.d, which swathes the eggs completely, interposing a thick, 

 the brown padding; warm silken blanket between them and the external case. 



c.u, the cup or dish n , 



against which the On the upper part oi this pad is a plate or cup (c.u), of 

 eggs (e) are deposited; \fa Q color and closer texture, with the concavity down- 



c.a, cap covering the 



egg cup ; c.s, suspen- ward. I have at least once found this to be a whitish 

 disk of stiff silk. The neck or stalk (nk) of the cocoon 

 is filled with a compact silken cone (c.s), of a yellowish or brown color, 

 which is united at the base to the egg plate (c.u), and at the top terminates 

 in a strong twisted cord (c.s), which sometimes extends upwards and forms 

 the central support to the cocoon. Next to the brown pad is often a thin 

 flossy envelope, which surrounds the egg sac. 

 The latter is a rather closely spun pouch of 

 variable tenacity, and whitish or pinkish 

 white color, that encloses the thousand or 

 more eggs which lie in a globular mass with- 

 in the heart of the cocoon. The inner egg 

 sac (e) is attached above to the plate or cup 

 (c.u), which, after the spiderlings hatch, is 

 pushed upward by them not unlike a trap- 

 door, permitting them to creep out into the 

 surrounding padding, leaving their white 

 shells within the sac. 



The plate serves to support the eggs, which 

 are probably oviposited upward against it. 

 One female, confined within a box, got so far 



in the Construction Of her COCOOn as to Spin FIG. 44. Cocoon of Cophinaria dissected 



the plate, but went no farther, leaving, how- to show the parts " Betters as in Fig. 43. 

 ever, this evidence of the point at which her ovipositing would have begun. 

 The genus Argiope is widely distributed throughout the globe, and the 

 cocooniug habit of the species has elsewhere the same characteristics as in 

 America. Argiope fasciata of Southern Europe and Northern Africa makes 



