GENERAL COCOONING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 



121 



which it is closely allied structurally. It is found in houses, upon walls, 

 etc., in warm situations. It is described as slow and deliberate in its 

 motions, displaying somewhat of the action of a gnat in lifting 

 and poising its leg in the air when walking. The whole char- 

 acter of the aranead is mild and quiet. The poison fangs are 

 so feeble as to be of but little use in seizing its prey, which office is chiefly 

 performed by the maxillae. When taken, Scytodes offers no resistance and 

 attempts no flight, but, feigning death, resigns itself quietly to its fate. 1 



This tribe embraces the singular genus Walckenaera, some of whose 

 species have the eyes placed upon little turret like elevations of the ceph- 

 alothorax. Their habits have not been carefully studied, and 

 their cocoons are little known. One European species, Walcke- 

 naera acumiiiata, makes a cocoon flat on one side, rounded on the 

 other, about one-third inch in diameter, and composed of slightly w r oven 

 white silk. It is found in autumn on the under surface of stones and 



Walck- 

 enaera. 



FIG. 126. 



FIG. 128. 



Cocoon of Agalena nsevia, spun upon bark. 



FIG. 126. Appearance of exterior, covered with brown sawdust. FIGS. 127 and 128. Views after the outer 



coverings have been removed. 



other objects. 2 Our American fauna has a number of closely related rep- 

 resentatives of this strange genus, Avhich are relegated by Emerton to vari- 

 ous genera, 3 and it is probable that their cocoonery nearly resembles that 

 of the above species. 



II. 



The most common Tubeweaver in the Eastern States is probably the 

 Speckled Agalena, Agalena nsevia. Its funnel shaped nest, with its broad 

 sheeted top spread over the grass or hedges, or stretched in mis- 

 cellaneous sites, is one of the most familiar objects in our land- 

 scape. Its cocoon is attached to some surface, as the leaf of a 

 tree, a rock, or the under surface of a loose bit of old bark. In 

 this position Agalena spreads a circular patch a half inch or 

 more in diameter, within which she encloses her eggs. This is covered 



Tube- 

 weaving 

 Agale- 

 ninse. 



1 Staveley, " British Spiders," page 268. 2 Idem, page 205. 



3 See his " NeW England Theridiidae." 



