MATERNAL INDUSTRY : COCOONS OP ORBWEAVKRS. 



107 



loosely, by attaching threads, as is the case of some other spiders that 

 make several cocoons. However, in this respect, the habit may differ. As 



a rule these cocoons are stretched like those of 

 Cyclosa caudata, along the axis of the mother's 

 horizontal orb, and are thus im- 

 mediately under the maternal 

 care. (Fig. 103.) In this posi- 

 tion I have seen them in New 

 Jersey, and thus Mrs. Treat has FlG - ^ c T n 



J ' Uloborus, enlarged 



observed them, and so also Mr. to show the surface 

 FIG. 100. FIG. 101. Emerton has described them. points ' 



Cocoon of Basilica spider: FIG. 100, /TX- -,r\A \ r\ A ^i 



the case open to show the black (* *g- 104.) Our American species appears in this 

 egg baii; FIG. 101, the baii open respect to have the same habit as the European 



to show the inside structure. . TT1 



species, Uloborus walckenaerms. 



This mode of disposing of the cocoon, however, cannot be universal, 

 for I possess a specimen, received from Dr. George Marx, which is stretched 

 along a little twig, to which its orb was attached, at a point slightly above 

 the cocoon string. (Fig. 105.) 



Hentz describes the cocoon of Uloborus mammeatus as tapering at both 

 ends, in color whitish, with veins of brownish black, and with many small 

 tubercles. He collected it in Alabama in dry places. 1 



VI 



The division here indicated between species habitually making a single 

 cocoon and species habitually spinning several is, on the whole, a natural 

 one ; but there are certain facts to be noted which throw a measure of 



FIG. 103. Cocoon string of Uloborus in position upon the snare. 



uncertainty around any such generalization. For example, it has long been 

 supposed that Argiope cophinaria spins but one cocoon ; and, judging from 



' Spiders of the United States," page 129, plate xix., Fig. 120. 



