78 WILDER, TERMEYER'S 



probable that one conjunction alone may suffice for their 

 whole life, which is usually from four to five years. 



Where they pass the winter is not yet well deter- 

 mined. Some diadema spiders I have found enveloped by 

 their threads with dried leaves ; others at the top of cellars 

 or attics, and some domestic spiders in coverings of old 

 webs, but these are very few in comparison with those 

 which we see reappear in the Spring. 



It follows from all this that there are few male spiders 

 in comparison with the females, and that few in fact are 

 needed, one conjunction alone being sufficient for many 

 years, and perhaps for the whole life of the female. 



It will not be out of place to observe here that al- 

 though a few species of spiders always carry with them the 

 sack of eggs generated by them, until the spiders appear, 

 yet in general they are contented with suspending it in a 

 place protected from the sun and from water, and as far as 

 possible from enemies, and although some remain for hours 

 and others for entire days upon the fresh cocoon, full and 

 perfect, yet it should not be said that they hatch the eggs 

 as birds generally do. 



There is not, as far as I know, any other insect which 

 forms a silky cocoon, in which to deposit its eggs, like the 

 spider, if we except that great black beetle (Scarabseus) 

 which is found in the water, and is thence called Idrofilo 

 (lover of water), (Datyscus piceus Lin). It makes a cocoon 

 of fine white silk, smooth below with a protuberance above, 

 and this is seen floating full of eggs upon stagnant or slowly 

 running water. The little beetles, when they have come 

 out from the eggs, open for themselves a door in the upper 

 part, hop out, and are soon briskly swimming about in the 

 water, their native element. 



NOTE. On page 74, speaking of the Aranea formosa, for the sake of brev- 

 ity its cocoon is not described with all precision ; beside what is noted, it is 

 remarkable that among the fine silk which fills the cavity of the cocoon, 

 there is in the interior a mass of pyramidal silk. The top is of a fine coffee 

 color, and the base is of more compact silk in a semicircular form. If this 

 is drawn out gently with the fingers, a little plate (patina) of gummed silk is 



