182 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



together. After the eggs are laid, the spider covers them with silk, draw- 

 ing the threads over from one side to the other, fastening them to the 

 edges of the web below. When the covering is complete, she bites off the 

 threads that hold the cocoon to the nest, and finishes off the edges with 

 her jaws. 



Phidippus galathea (Attus mystaceus Hentz) spins, before laying her 



eggs, a thick nest of white silk, usually on the under side of a stone. In 



this she thickens a circular patch on the side next the stone, and 



O 14-* 



discharges her eggs upward against it. (Fig. 239.) They adhere, 

 and are subsequently covered with white silk, after the manner 

 common to Saltigrades. Mr. Emerton had a female of this species that 

 deposited her eggs in confinement ; he records that, " instead of completing 

 the cocoon properly, she ate the eggs immediately after laying them," 1 a 

 breach of maternal fidelity which I believe to be rare among araneads, even 

 when cocooning in the unnatural conditions of a forced imprisonment. 



The eggs are deposited in a mass, cylindrical, conical, or hemispherical, 

 individuals of which are usually fastened together by a glutinous sub- 

 stance, but sometimes are deposited loose, so that they roll about 



f ) in the hand when the cocoon envelope is cut. We are indebted 

 to Menge for the following interesting observation : After all the 

 eggs are deposited the spider rests for a season, when she commences to 



draw threads over the eggs, as if desirous of 

 covering them up; but it soon becomes clear 

 that something else is to follow. After a while 

 she returns to the cocoon and discharges a 

 x clear liquid over the eggs, which is absorbed 



FIG. 239. Phidippus galathea (Walck.) 



laying eggs within a silken ceii. (After by them without in any way interfering with 

 Emerton ' ) the web. This causes the eggs to swell to 



such an extent that they could no longer be contained within the animal. 



Menge thinks that this fluid proceeds from the semen pockets, which at 

 this period are very much enlarged, and becomes mixed with the 

 male semen, so that in reality the fructification of the eggs is 

 completed by the female. The mother now appears very much 



exhausted. She lays down for a while on the eggs, and, finally, com- 



mences to spin them over, entirely covering them. 2 



Mr. Moggridge had the opportunity to observe the eggs laid by a 



specimen of our Cteniza californica, which was sent to him from America 

 and kept for a while in captivity. The eggs were deposited in 



E several clusters, at various times, upon the under surface of a 



gauze fastened upon the mouth of the box in which she was 



imprisoned. The first of these groups was laid during the night, between 



1 Structure and Habits, pages 99, 100. 



2 Menge, "Preussische Spinnen." The author adds "that it takes patience and persever- 

 ance to observe the spider during this entire process, and he had only succeeded twice." 



