54 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



iago, the writer came across a 

 large broken oak tree trunk, with 

 its bark loosely adherent to the 

 fallen tree. In removing this 

 bark with a stick an interesting 

 scene presented itself. In one cor- 

 ner two large scorpions, with tail 

 erect, were seen, coiled up and 

 ready to strike, and several feet 

 apart two small jumping spiders, 

 with their breeding nest were to 

 be seen. They were both of the 

 deadly speckled type, and the jet 

 black colored variety with its 



which the spider dwells and lure'p 

 for some insect that may be en- 

 tangled in this upper web (just 

 as seen in the illustration). 



A similar rare and rather queer 

 and scientificially interesting 

 breeding nest of a spider is also 

 seen in the photo illustration in 

 these pages, showing a spider's 

 breeding nest in a large silver 

 spoon. The spoon with its inter- 

 esting contents was handed the 

 writer two years ago by the sec- 

 retary of the San Antonio Scienti- 



Photomicrograph of a Very Young Crablike Spider and Egg 



three carmine red specks. It was 

 hidden under the cover-lining of 

 its dense webnest — exactly as 

 seen in the original photo in 

 these pages. In the center part of 

 this illustration is seen the round- 

 ed or oval-shaped cocoon of these 

 spiders, which contained myriads 

 of eggs, and perhaps developed 

 young spiders. The mother spider 

 of this species covers its breeding 

 nest with delicate, yet dense and 

 strong, upper weblining, under 



fie Society, and later I happened 

 to prepare a photo copy of same 

 for a lecture before the Scientific 

 Society of San Antonio, on Texas 

 arachnids. This spoon, as the il- 

 lustration shows, was nearly en- 

 tirely covered with a densely wo- 

 ven, network cover, and a funnel- 

 shaped breeding nest inside the 

 hollow part of the spoon. We 

 noticed numerous living spiders 

 crawling over the edge of the 

 spoon and along the web-lining — 



