ON ARACHNIDA. 475 



The cocoon is usually globular, or ovoid, and presents at 

 the interior, a wad of silk, tolerably thick, and often diiFerently 

 coloured from the silk which forms the exterior envelope. 

 The eggs are very numerous, agglutinated, and placed in the 

 middle of this sort of down. 



Many of these araneides lay eggs but once a year, which 

 happens at the end of summer, or the commencement of 

 autumn. Some epeirae compose webs of very strong threads, 

 capable of arresting the flight of birds even as large as a wild 

 pigeon. The epeirae described by M. Labillardiere, in his 

 Voyage in search of La Peyrouse, is a viand greatly in esti- 

 mation among the inhabitants of New Caledonia. They first 

 kill these animals in earthen vessels, which they cause to be 

 heated, and then grill them on the coals. The naturalist just 

 mentioned saw two children swallow about one hundred of 

 them. This species inhabits the woods, and its web also 

 opposes much resistance. 



The Epeira cicatrosa spins its web against walls or other 

 bodies, and remains concealed in a nest of white silk, which 

 it forms under some projecting part, or in some cavity in the 

 neighbourhood of its web. It gives no sign of life when it is 

 taken, and never comes forth except at night ; it is then, or at 

 all events when the light is weak, that it spins. Its web is 

 often loaded, but without any order, with the carcases of the 

 different insects which have served it as food ; even scolo- 

 pendrae have been found there. Clerk, however, tells us 

 that this species prefers phalenae, and other nocturnal lepi- 

 doptera to flies. It is also in the darkness of night that it 

 devotes itself to the pleasures of love. The female lays in 

 spring, and conceals its eggs in its habitation, or near it. Ac- 

 cording to Clerk, the cocoon is the size of an ordinary pea. 

 Lister tells us that the eggs are very crowded, and placed one 

 upon the other in several strata, so that they form a firm, 

 flatted, and orbicular body, like in figure and bulk to a lupin 



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