482 SUPPLEMRNT 



breast, where it may be in safety, and that after having at- 

 tached it, as before, she betakes herself to flight. 



Degeer having enclosed in a box, a female of the species 

 ruricola, she spun there, against its walls, a stratum of white 

 silk, to which she attached her cocoon ; she then removed to 

 a certain distance, but would return to it from time to time, 

 sitting herself down upon it in an affectionate manner. This 

 cocoon contained more than one hundred and eighty eggs. 



This observer presumes that the mother assists the young 

 in issuing from their prison, by piercing the cocoon, and that 

 this assistance is even necessary for them. The eggs disclose 

 the young in June or July. The little ones remain for some 

 time longer, or until their first change of skin, in the cradle 

 where they were born. Less feeble, after this transformation, 

 they abandon their dwelling, mount on the body of the 

 mother, cling all around her abdomen, more particularly on 

 the back, and arrange themselves there in a large sort of ball 

 or cushion, so that the mother becomes hideous, and not to be 

 recognized. She walks about every where, thus loaded with 

 her progeny, which do not abandon her, and with which no 

 doubt she shares her booty. Towards the end of June, or 

 the commencement of Jul}', the lycosa littoralis is frequently 

 observed in this situation. 



Lister has observed, in the middle of October, when the 

 weather was serene, a great number of young lycosse hovering 

 in the air. He tells us that he has sometimes seen them ejacu- 

 late from their spinnerets, several simple threads, like the rays 

 of a comet, and which exhibited all the splendour ofabrilliant 

 purple. Sometimes they broke the threads, and sometimes 

 collected them into a little ball of snowy whiteness, moving 

 their feet with rapidity all around, and above their heads. 

 They abandoned themselves to the impulse of the air, and 

 were transported to very considerable elevations. These long 



