Weavers and Spinners. 



to effectively hide the golden treasure of her egg-cocoons 

 which are slung within the tent. The Wolf, or Hunt- 

 ing Spiders, which do not construct elaborate snares, 

 weave oval or round silken cocoons to contain their eggs, 

 and either carry them about attached by a silken thread 

 to their body, or hide them away in nooks and crannies 

 under the bark of trees or in the rocks, or cracks in the 

 brickwork of outhouses. 



Many caterpillars are expert weavers, spinning lovely 

 silken cocoons in which to pass the pupa stage of their 

 transformations, or silken webs to screen them from 

 view. Thus the little caterpillars of the Lackey Moth 

 as soon as they escape from the eggs unite into com- 

 panies and envelop themselves in a silken web, which 

 covers the leaves and branches in their neighbour- 

 hood ; and beneath this common shelter they remain 

 until they have considerably increased in size, when 

 the little party breaks up and the individual caterpillars 

 spread over the trees. The caterpillars of the Pro- 

 cessionary Moth, which is fairly common in some 

 parts of France, collect in families which may con- 

 tain hundreds of members. They form an irregular 

 web, in which they remain during the daytime, issuing 

 forth at eventide to feed. Such a common web or 

 nest may cover a considerable part of the trunk of a 

 tree ; and it consists of several layers of silken web, 

 one over the other, but very intimately woven together, 

 its weaving having been accomplished by the united 

 labours of the caterpillars. These caterpillars have 

 gained their popular name from their mode of prog- 

 ress when going forth to feed. During the daytime 

 they remain closely packed together beneath the shelter 



153 



