120 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



FIG. 124. The mother Pholcus hanging in her snare, 

 with cocoon held in her jaws. 



or July, is a pale brownish color, containing brown eggs. It resorts to dark 

 and damp places, as cellars and the under surfaces of stones. It is cer- 

 tainly remarkable to find a Line- 

 weaving species thus approximat- 

 ing the Citigrades, from which it 

 so greatly differs in other respects; 

 in the manner of caring for the 

 cocoon. 



But in this habit she is not 

 alone among her tribe. Theridium 

 carolinum forms in June a round 

 white cocoon one-tenth inch in di- 

 ameter, which she carries attached 

 by threads to her person. 1 A 

 pretty little Theridioid, Steatoda 

 maculata (Theriolium maculatum 

 Linn.), is also said to carry about 

 its egg cocoon suspended between 

 the legs, and only relinquishes it 

 when force is used, regaining it 

 quickly if possible. 

 The cocoon of Pholcus phalangioides, which is perhaps the very simplest 

 in structure of all this tribe, and I may add of all the tribes, is simply a 

 gauzy covering which encloses the eggs, the whole being gathered 

 into a globular mass. This is held by the spider within her 

 jaws as she hangs in her ordinary position within her straggling web of 

 intersecting lines. In this portage of her egg case Pholcus approaches the 

 habit of the Citi- 

 grades and Tunnel- 

 weavers. (Fig. 124.) 

 Scytodes thora- 

 cicaLatr. (Scytodes 

 cameratus Hentz) 

 has been found by 

 Mr. Emerton, in 

 New England, as a 

 house spider, which 

 he supposes has 

 been imported from 



Europe. European observers note that this spider carries her cocoon under 

 her breastplate, in which position it is not secured by silken threads, but 

 is held by the falces and palpi. In this habit it resembles Pholcus, with 



FIG. 125. English Pholcus phalangioides, with her cocoon. (After Blackwall.) 



Staveley, " British Spiders," page 141. 



