COLOR AND THE COLOR SENSE. 347 



The colors of her cocoon are yellow, white, and brown. Argiope argy- 

 raspis has yellow, black, and silvery white upon her abdomen. Her co- 

 coon is yellow and white. Argiope argenteola has an abdomen whose 

 colors are metallic white or silver, yellow, and black. Her cocoon is green 

 or yellow, or a combination of green and yellow on the outside with a 

 white tuft within. The Insular spider has for its abdominal colors yellow, 

 orange, and brown. Her cocoon is a uniform yellow. The Bifid spider 

 has for its prevailing colors a light greenish hue intermingled with a livid 

 yellow and a little brown. Her cocoon is a dull green color. 



The prevailing colors of Orbweavers' cocoons may be said to be yellow 



and white. Sometimes the yellow shades into green, sometimes into brown. 



The dark or blackish cocoons, when examined carefully, are 



Prevailing f oun( j ^o owe their shade to the compactness of the threads of 



which they are spun and the presence of gum. The above 



colors, namely, yellow and white, are the prevailing ones among 



Orbweavers themselves. The yellows sometimes shade into green, oftener 



into brown, livid, and orange. The white frequently becomes metallic, 



having a silver sheen. There is, therefore, some basis for suggesting a 



correspondence between the color of a cocoon and that of the spider, or 



abdomen of the spider, which spins it. The harmony is more apparent, 



as far as my observation extends, among Orbweavers than other araneads; 



but there are not enough facts in hand to justify a generalization. 



Turning from the Orbweavers to other tribal groups, we find that the 

 exceptions are so many and striking that "they appear at once to wholly 

 disparage the theory. Most Citigrades and Tunnelweavers, and many Tube- 

 weavers, are dark colored, but their cocoons are quite uniformly white. 

 For example, the well known American tarantula, whose large cocoon is a 

 white ovoid ball three inches long, has a dark reddish brown and black 

 coat. 



Tegenaria medicinalis is a quite dark, almost black spider, but she 

 spins a white cocoon. The same is true of Tegenaria persica, whose clus- 

 tered cocoons are white when originally spun, although the mother 

 covers them with dirt, and thus soils the appearance. The Speck- 

 led Tubeweaver is a dull creature, yet she spins a beautiful white 

 cocoon, although she also mars its whiteness by adding extraneous mate- 

 rial. With many of the Drassids the same rule obtains. Without multi- 

 plying examples, this may be said fairly to represent the color relations of 

 American araneads to their cocoonery. 



An examination of the colors of European cocoons, as given by Walck- 

 enaer, Black wall, or Simon, or by Staveley, 1 in her tabular arrangement 

 of cocoons and eggs, will show that the same fact obtains among the spi- 

 ders of Great Britain and Ireland. We learn from this table that a great 



~3 ' 



1 British Spiders, pages 269-275. 



