76 WILDEE, TERMEYER'S 



I know that this is not the common course of nature, but 

 I know also that the phenomenon is not altogether new. 

 Why may it not occur in regard to the eggs of spiders ? 

 The fact is certain, many times verified by me, and I will 

 report here a single observation, well circumstantiated. In 

 1791, at the time of their amours, I went in search of female 

 spiders, and I found fourteen of them, together with the male, 

 and I was witness of their conjunction. I collected them 

 separately in the usual boxes, where they all gave me, some 

 one, some two cocoons. In the spring, the little spiders 

 came out from the cocoons, and from their littleness escaped 

 through the net-work by which the box was closed on two 

 sides. Four of the mother-spiders perished during the win- 

 ter and ten remained, more than enough for my object. These 

 were abundantly fed on flies which they devoured greedily .^^ 

 In the early part of May, 1792, they began one after anoth- 

 er, to form cocoons. In the middle of the month, the 

 cocoon, white before, became blackish^ a sign that the little 

 spiders were hatched, nor did they delay coming out from 

 the cocoon and from the box in which the mother remained. 

 On the first of June and thereabout the mothers produced 

 a second cocoon, nearly equal to the first, and from this also, 

 the little spiders went out, well formed and lively, without 

 having followed upon any coupling. The mothers made the 

 third cocoon between the first and the sixth of July, and the 

 little spiders were hatched in the same manner and ran away. 

 The same thing occurred with a fourth cocoon, made between 

 the 17th and 24:th of August, and also with a fifth formed 

 between the 30th of the same month and the sixth of Sep- 



16. I say " devoured" because the spider does not content himself with 

 sucking the fluids of his prey, but he tears it, swallows the flesh, rejecting 

 with excrements the parts difficult of digestion, which are the wings, claws, 

 &c. Lister observed this in one spider, and I have observed it in very many • 

 having also assured myself of it by soaking in warm white wine the dead 

 bodies of insects offered for the spider's meal. I saw that among the mem- 

 bers which recovered their natural dimensions many pieces were missing.' 



1. This was at the best negative proof, and it seems very doubtful 

 whether spiders really swallow anything but fluids, though they crush and 

 comminute the hard parts to obtain their soft contents. [Reviseb.] 



