220 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



while on the windward side it was quite swept away. To quote the moral- 

 izing sentiment of the journalist, " their frail house was more ragged than 

 good resolutions after a week's wear!" The spiderlings remained snugged 

 underneath their leaf as when first seen. 



On the afternoon of May 27th the little fellows had " outgrown their 

 clothes, and hung them on the line, while they looked very smart in their 



new clothes, over which no one had toiled. Their change of gar- 



. e ] ? ments had led to no change of habits," for they were snugged to- 



Coats gether in a ball as when first observed. In other words, the 



spiderlings had undergone a moult, and their white casts of skins 

 clung to the lines upon which the moult had been effected. This is usual 

 among young spiders. Mrs. Treat has even observed the shed skins of 

 baby Turret spiders 1 clinging to lines stretched across the top of the 

 mother's abdomen, upon which the younglings had unfrocked themselves. 

 May 29th, 9 A. M. The colonists were still closely snugged. They had 

 grown some, and had thrown out a few cables to support their tent, which 



was then quite rickety. At five o'clock in the evening they were 



in the same condition. May 30th, 5 P. M. A few individuals 

 sion 



were found spinning webs on an adjoining tree, but the majority 



were " wandering in the wilderness of life, and could not be found." Twenty- 

 on'e still clung to the old home. * * * May 31st, at 2 P. M., only five 

 spiderlings could be found. " These wandered about in a forlorn way like 

 pilgrims preparing to seek a shrine beyond the known country." 



June 1st, at 3 P. M., not one of the colony was to be found. The frag- 

 ments of the web and "the old clothes" were all that were left. About a 

 rod beyond the site of this colony Miss Skinner found a new ball of spider- 

 lings, apparently quite recently made ; I quote the conclusion of her journal, 

 which relates to this second colony : " June 2d. Something has happened 

 to them, I know not what! Not a trace is to be found. So perish great 

 nations ! " 



Two of the young ladies of the seminary made sketches of the colony 

 two or three days after the first observation. At that time the enclosing 

 pavilion had been blown away, nothing remaining but a few straggling 

 lines. I have restored the pavilion from my own sketch, presenting it thus 

 as when first seen. (Fig. 251.) There is nothing to show how many of 

 the two Ogontz colonies may have survived. It is not unlikely that a few 

 scattered into the surrounding foliage and might have been found quietly 

 ensconced beneath leaves or any other sheltered position, but the proba- 

 bility is that most, if not all, of them perished. Such is certainly the 

 fate of multitudes of young Orb weavers. 2 



1 Lycosa arenicola Scudder. See the author's " Tenants of an Old Farm," page 139. 



2 I reserve for the chapter on General Habits (under Moulting) the history of a brood 

 of Epeiras hatched upon a honeysuckle arbor in my manse yard, whose fortunes I followed 

 with particular interest. 



