166 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



first been spun upon the leaf, within which the egg mass was oviposited. 

 Over that the external blanket was woven, and when my observation 

 began the mother was engaged upon this. 



The method of proceeding did not differ from that of other species 

 and tribes in like work. The spider grasped the margins of the cocoons 

 with the claws of her fore feet, which she continually moved around 

 the margin as she spun. The third pair of legs, and occasionally one of 

 the fourth, were also used for grasping the cocoon and moving the spider's 

 body. The remaining fourth leg, and sometimes both the hind legs, were 



used for drawing out the spinning 

 threads. As the spider thus swung 

 around her cocoon, heavy filaments 

 of silk were extruded from all the 

 spinnerets, which were opened up 

 and somewhat elevated. The long 

 jointed third pair, particularly, was 

 constantly lifted up and dropped, 

 as though beating in the silken tis- 

 sue, after the manner described in 

 the case of Argiope cophinaria when 

 making her silken shield. (Vol. I., 

 Chapter VI., page 100.) 



We may confidently assert that 

 the Territelarise form no exception, 

 for I have fully observed their mode 

 of spinning the material which cor- 

 responds with the silken cocoon. 

 The silken rug on which our great 

 Tarantula rests, the tube of the 

 Purseweb spider, etc., are almost 

 certainly woven precisely as is the 

 cocoon of those species ; and, if so, 



FIG. 203. Agalena naevia engaged in covering her eggs; flie TunnelweaVerS Spin their CO- 

 use of the long spinnerets. 



coons as do other tribes. 



Turning to the Wanderers, we have in the case of the Lycosids an ex- 

 ample, to which I have heretofore referred (Vol. II., page 144), of the man- 

 ner in which Lycosa fabricates her round cocoon. She first 

 weaves a circular patch, which she afterwards forms into a hol- 

 low sphere surrounding her eggs. The mode of equalizing the spinning 

 thread is as follows : The feet clasped the circumference of the cushion, 

 and the body of the animal was slowly revolved. The abdomen, greatly 

 reduced in size by the extrusion of the eggs, was lifted up, thus drawing 

 out short loops of silk from the extended spinnerets, which, when the 

 abdomen was dropped again, contracted and left a flossy curl of silk at 



Lycosa. 



