138 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



Atypus' 

 Cocoon. 



M. Eugene Simon l and by Mr. Pickard-Cambridge. 2 Mr. Simon has made 

 a drawing of the cocoon as found by him in natural site, which 

 I reproduce from the paper just quoted. The earth is therein 

 shown dug away to disclose the burrow, and the projecting tube 

 is seen as laid along the surface. (See Fig. 169.) Instead of the ham- 

 mock which Enock describes, Mr. Simon says that a number of threads 

 are used to suspend the cocoon in the throat of the enlargement of the 



burrow. 



Mr. Enock found the male of Aty- 

 pus piceus in the tubular nest of the 

 female October 15th, and again Octo- 

 ber 20th, but the fertilization must 

 have occurred earlier, for the same 

 writer, on August 1st and again on 

 September 1st, found the cocoons con- 

 taining eggs, and during the months 

 of September and October the young 

 were already found hatched. Accord- 

 ing to this observer, the number of 

 eggs in the cocoon of Atypus piceus 

 was usually over a hundred. On sev- 

 eral occasions he counted the number 

 of young living with a single female, 

 the sum always exceeding one hun- 

 dred, and sometimes as high as one 

 hundred and fifty-seven. 3 Black wall, 

 however, states that the mother Aty- 

 pus deposits between thirty and forty 

 eggs, 4 but in view of the particular 

 and definite statements of Mr. Enock 

 we must conclude that this is a mis- 

 take. 



Abbot's Atypus of Florida no doubt protects her egg sac in the same 



, manner as Atypus piceus, since, according to Abbot's note, as re- 



At corded by Baron Walckenaer, 5 and which I have read in the 



original manuscript, the young are found, like the offspring of 



Lycosids, domiciled on the back of the" mother after they are hatched. 6 



Fro. 169. The cocoon of Atypus piceus, suspend- 

 ed within her tunnel. (After Simon.) 



1 Annals of the Entomological Society of France, fifth series, Tom. III., 1874, page 114 

 and pi. 4. 



2 Spiders of Dorset, page xxxiii., Introduction. 3 Op. cit., page 392. 



4 Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland, page 15. 



5 Hist. Nat. des Insectes, Apteres, Vol. I., page 248. 



6 McCook, " Nesting Habits of the American Purseweb Spider," Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci., 

 Phila., 1888, page 213. 



