DEPOSITIONS OF EGGS. 93 



lus cristatus, RAY), busily pecking the eggs of the 

 cocci in the hedges.* 



The resemblance of these singular insects to the 

 wood-louse (Oniscus), which is not properly an in- 

 sect, but a crustaceous animal, may be traced farther 

 than mere external appearance; for the body of the 

 mother, in the latter, also becomes a covering for 

 the egg, though she does not die immediately after 

 laying as the coccus does, but carries her eggs under 

 her breast in small four-valved cells. 



One of the most easily discovered depositions of 

 eggs during the winter months are those made by 

 various species of spiders, particularly that of the 

 large garden-spider (Epeira diadema), which may 

 be found in the angles of walls, in form of a ball, 

 about the size of a cherry, of beautiful yellow silk, 

 and much stronger than the common materials of the 

 same spider's geometric web. This substance Reau- 

 mur endeavoured to bring into use as a substitute for 

 silk; but he was unsuccessful in procuring it in quan- 

 tity, owing to the ferocious habits of the spiders, 

 which devoured one another when he reared them 

 gregariously. As the eggs of spiders have usually a 

 thin soft shell, a thick warm envelope of silk is, no 

 doubt, essential to their weathering the colds of winter, 

 notwithstanding the sheltered corners where they are 

 usually placed. Some species weave these little silk- 

 en nests in a very elegant form. We possess one 

 of the pyriform shape of a balloon, the texture of 

 which is close and netted with diagonal meshes. One, 

 somewhat in form of a drinking-glass, is figured in 

 Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, as having 

 been found near Wandsworth, attached to the stem 

 of a rush growing in water. 



There was a deposition of eggs at the bottom, the 

 rest of the space being vacant. De Geer describes 



* J. R. 



