GENERAL COCOONING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 



135 



FIG. 163. Female Se- 

 gestria canities. 



inward for two inches and more. The silk of the tube was fine, but the 

 flap of netted work by which it was attached to either side was of coarser 

 fibre. (See Fig. 162.) The tubes were spun all the way 

 up the fissure to the fork of the trunk. 



The spiders watch near the orifice of their tubes with 

 the first three pairs of legs directed forward, an unusual 

 position, as spiders usually have only the first two pairs 

 thrust outward. 



The cocoon, containing twenty or thirty eggs, is placed 

 within the inner part of the tube in July and August. 

 Emerton 1 saw one in this position July 10th, and an- 

 other under a stone with a cocoon containing thirty-four 

 eggs. The English Dysdera hombergii spins her egg sac 

 within her tube in June ; it is an oval cell, within which 

 are from twenty to thirty pinkish eggs loosely bound together. The cell is 

 slightly w r oven, and is covered with particles of gravel or other extraneous 

 matter. It thus appears that the cocooning habits of the genus as rep- 

 resented in Europe are the same as those of our American species. 



In material sent me from San Bernardino, California, by Mr. Wright, 



were cocooning nests of a peculiar type made by a species of Segestria, 



which appears to be new, and which I have named Segestria 



a canities. (Fig. 163.) The species was determined from young 



spiders found enclosed in some of the cocoons. Subsequently, I 



received from the same section, through Mrs. Eigenmann, two mature 



females, which enabled me to confirm my previous determination, and 



thus to identify the cocoons which are here described. The species is 



shown at Fig. 163, and a view of the face at Fig. 164. 2 



The mother Segestria spins a series of flattened disks, which are over- 

 laid one upon another like tiles upon a roof, and are bound by silken 

 threads somewhat after the fashion of Epeira labyrin- 

 th ea's cocoons. This series of cocoons is sometimes three 

 inches or more in length. The examples sent me were 

 covered (apparently intentionally) with leaves, from the 

 plant upon which the string had been suspended, resem- 

 bling the leaves of spruce or hemlock. Along the entire 

 FIG. 164. view of eyes length of one side of the cocoon string the mother 

 and face of Segestria had spun a silken tube, within which she dwelt. The 



canities. . . . . . 



manner 111 which the string is suspended is represented 

 in Fig. 165. It hangs within a maze of intersecting cross lines like the 



1 Notes, Hentz's Spiders U. S., page 22. 



2 The spider is about three-eighths inch long; the cephalothorax brown, the abdomen 

 brownish yellow covered thickly with white hairs, which also strongly mark the cephalo- 

 thorax, suggesting its specific name. The legs are yellow, with brown rings at the joints 

 and a similar ring in the middle of the tibia. 



