366 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



sides of the glass about half way down. Each of the 

 females afterwards fixed a close bag to the edge of 

 the glass, from which the water was expelled by the 

 air liom the spinneret, and thus a cell was formed 

 capable of containing the whole animal. Here 

 they remained quietly, with their abdomens in their 

 cells, and their bodies still plunged in the water; and 

 in a short time brimstone-coloured bags of eggs ap- 

 peared in each cell, filling it about a fourth part. On 

 the 7th of July several young ones swam out from 

 one of the bags: — all this time the old ones had no- 

 thing to eat, and yet they never attacked one another 

 as other spiders would have been apt to do."* 

 . " These spiders," says de Geer, " spin in the 

 water a cell of strong, closely woven, white silk in 

 the form of half the shell of a pigeon's egg, or like a 

 diving-bell. This is sometimes left partly above 

 water, but at others is entirely submersed, and is 

 always attached to the objects near it by a great num- 

 ber of irregular threads. It is closed all round, but 

 has a large opening below, which, however, I found 

 closed on the 15th of December, and the spider living 

 quietly witliin, with her head downwards. 1 made a 

 rent in this cell and expelled the air, upon which the 

 spider came out; yet though she appeared to have 

 been laid up for three months in her winter quar- 

 ters, she greedily seized upon an insect and sucked 

 it. I also found that the male as well as the female 

 constructs a similar subaqueous cell, and during 

 summer no less than in winter, "j 



Cleanliness of Spiders. 



When we look at the viscid material with which 

 spiders construct their lines and webs, and at the 



* Clerck, Aranei Snecici, Cap. viii. 



t De Geer, Mem. des Insectes, vii. 312. 



