87 
disburdening, examined the intruder’s damage, patching up the 
spot, biting dry bits from the cell for this purpose. The cell 
cover was smoother than the rest of the exterior, and its fovt- 
rest or nipple had evidently been used up in sealing. The old 
mother had about completed her life’s work, her worn body 

Fig. 38. MM. violacea with her spider prey, Heteropoda vena- 
toria, whose legs she has bitten off, and which she is 
carrying up a tree, X 2. 
probably contained no more eggs, and she devoted her few re- 
maining days to guarding the cell. Perched upon the object of 
her solicitude, her tarsi would every now and then twitch ner- 
vously. It was seldom that she took a brief trip to the field, 
and I observed her upon the cell during the night. Finally, on 
the morning of August 15, she was found dead, but hardly stif- 
fened, in the bamboo partition or internode below her cell, which 
now enclosed a fine large cocoon. 
