60 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES, 



The Haunts of the Small and Vicious Prarie 

 Jumping Tarantula. 



For reasons of their vicious 

 character and interesting life hab- 

 its in building a large snow- 

 white cocoon to live and breed in, 

 I submit to the readers a few 

 more original observations and 

 photographs directly from nature 

 concerning the jumping tarantula. 

 The photos were prepared lately 

 by the writer during an outing 

 near our famous Mitchell's Lake 

 hunting preserve. Much of the 



of the little insects in the act of 

 emerging from its oval shaped co- 

 coon, or .breeding nest, while the 

 other photo shows another, but of 

 a different type of spider, outside 

 of its nest — both on a large cactus 

 leaf. This breeding nest is of 

 snow-white ^color and silk Hike 

 cluster; the main inside being cov- 

 ered and sheltered by an outside 

 web-lining; and both serve these 

 little dangerous creatures as shel- 



Black Jumping Tarantula Escaping Its Cocoon or Breeding Nest. 

 Which is Prepared on a Cactus Leaf 



land and rocky hilly regions 

 around there is cleared of brush 

 and cactus jungles and converted 

 into cultivated land; much of it 

 though is still in the same wild- 

 erness as in the days of the In- 

 dians; and it is there among the 

 (.puntia cactus plants, where quite 

 numbers of the various types of 

 the small and vicious jumping ta- 

 rantulas or vagabond spider 

 abound, and the photos show one 



ter in inclement weather as well 

 as a breeding haunt, the female 

 depositing immense numbers of 

 small round eggs inside i separate 

 and densely woven globular web- 

 cocoon. They never spin lar^^e 

 outside trap nest webs like other 

 spider species do, as they catch 

 their prey, mostly small insects, 

 with a sudden far leap, with their 

 powerful and thick front legs 

 and curved fangs. 



