,76 WILDER, TERMEYEB'S 



liknow 'that this is not the common course of nature, but 

 I know also that the phenomenon is not altogether new. 

 Why may it not occur in regard to the eggs of spiders ? 

 The fact -is certain, many times verified by me, and I will 

 "report here a single observation, well circumstantiated. In 

 J. 791, at the time of their amours, I went in search of female 

 .spiders, and I found fourteen of them, together with the male, 

 and H was witness of their conjunction. I collected them 

 separately in the usual boxes, where they all gave me, some 

 -one, some (two cocoons. In the spring, the little spiders 

 -came tout from .the cocoons, and from their littleness escaped 

 through the net-work by which the box was closed on two 

 sides. JFour of the mother-spiders perished during the win- 

 teirand ten remained, more than enough for my object. These 

 were abundantly fed on flies which they devoured greedily. 16 

 In the early part of May, 1792, they began one after anoth- 

 er, to form cocoons. In the middle of the month, the 

 eoeoon, white before, became blackish^ a sign that the little 

 ; spiders were hatched, nor did they delay coming out from 

 ; the tcocoon . 'and from the box in which the mother remained. 

 On the first of June and thereabout the mothers produced 

 /a second cocoon, -nearly equal to the first, and from this also, 

 'the little spiders went out, well formed and lively, without 

 having followed upon any coupling. The mothers made the 

 third cocoon between the first and the sixth of July, and the 

 little spiders were hatctied in the same manner and ran away. 

 'The; same thing occurred with a fourth cocoon, made between 

 Jthe i!7th and 24th of August, and also with a fifth formed 

 ^between the 30th of the same month and the sixth of Sep- 



16. 3'*&y " devoured" because the spider does not content himself with 

 suckinj, the fluids of his prey, but he tears it, swallows the flesh, rejecting 

 with excrements the parts difficult of digestion, which are the wings, claws, 

 &c. Lister jobservedthis in one spider, and I have observed it in very many j 

 having also assured myself of it by soaking in warm white wine the dead 

 'bodies of insects offered for the spider's meal. I saw that among the mem- 

 'bers which recovered their natural dimensions many pieces were missing. 1 



-1. This was At the best negative proof, and it seems very doubtful 

 whether spiders really swallow anything but fluids, though they crush and 

 comminute the hard parts to obtain their soft contents. [REVISER.] 



