Oct., '04] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 279 



Cyllopoda cavata, a single specimen furnishing the characters 

 for the description. Later, 1875, Prof. G. B. Wilder of Cor- 

 nell University published in the Popular Science Monthly a 

 more extended description of the spider, its snare, and peculiar 



Photograph by J. H. Comstock. 



method of manipulating the same, referring to the species as 

 Hyptiotes aniericanus. In this article appeared an illustration 

 showing a tiny white cocoon suspended by two or three slen- 

 der threads from a small branch of evergreen. The author 

 thought it might be the cocoon of Hyptiotes, and suggested 

 further observation to verify the conclusion. 



It was my good fortune the past year, during the progress 

 of a series of investigations begun at Ithaca, N. Y., on the 

 cocooning habits of spiders in general, to settle the question 

 finall}', though not in favor of the cocoon referred to above. 

 That probabh" belongs to one of the smaller Theridiids. Two 

 females of Hyptiotes, imprisoned in glass tubes the first week 

 in September, furnished the key to the situation by spinning a 

 cocoon each on the cork stopper. After that, by careful search, 

 any number could be found in the field, though nearly all 

 noticed for a week or so were old cocoons of the previous sea- 

 son. They are usually located on the dead branches of pine 

 just below a bud, where by reason of their protective colora- 

 tion they are not easily seen. They are small plano-convex 

 objects, elongate oval in outline, and resembling somewhat 

 certain scale insects. The average length is from five-sixteenths 



