94 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



It was fully a week before all the brood had moulted, and it was an 

 odd appearance that the mother presented, with the innumerable little 

 ragged castoff dresses hanging all over the lines upon her abdomen. In 

 these broods Mrs. Treat never observed any tendency towards fratricide 

 and intentional cannibalism, although she records that in the absence of 

 other food the mother crushed some of her young and held them so that 

 the little cannibals could suck the juices. The killing of the young may, 

 however, have been simply accidental. 



A somewhat similar phenomenon may be observed in the moulting of 

 young Dolomede spiders. Within the large nest of woven and thatched 

 leaves made by the mother, 1 the young spend the early period 

 Young o their life after issuing from the white cocoon, which is swung 

 in the midst of the little leafy wigwam. Herein they string 

 innumerable lines from wall to wall and from roof to floor, on 

 which they sport and hang in groups, and in due time suspend themselves 

 for the act of disrobing. One who peeps within the nest after this proc- 

 ess, or after it has been abandoned by the brood, will see great numbers 

 of castoff skins hanging to the network of interior lines. 



The same fact may be observed in the case of the Theridioid young 



who are in the habit of remaining within the parental snare, or maze 



of crossed lines, for a period after hatching. They usually take 



a position in mass at the upper part of the snare, and thereon ; 



when the first moults are made, they hang their rejected skins. 



In this habit there appears, indeed, to be little difference among broods 



of young spiders. The place in which they happen to be when Nature 



compels a moult is the place in which the phenomenon occurs. No doubt, 



the spiders that remain for the first moults in the nest provided by parental 



instinct must have a better chance for life, as against the exigencies of 



weather, than those which, like the Orbweavers, seek their own moulting 



domicile and shed their skins in any available locality. 



III. 



Blackwall expresses the opinion, after having frequently witnessed the 



moulting of spiders in their natural haunts as well as in captivity, and 



having examined the cast skins of numerous species belonging to 



Manner more than sixteen genera, ranging through all the tribes except 



the Territelaria?, that the process of moulting is substantially 



uniform among all kinds of spiders. 2 Wagner's observations 



have led him to the same conclusion, which I am able also to confirm 



from observation of the act and study of castoff skins, including therein 



the Territelaria?, whose moulting I have seen in several individuals and 



found to follow the general rule. 



1 See Vol. II., page 145, Fig. 177. 2 Researches in Zoology, page 308. 



