TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 63 



close focusing lens. It takes 

 con«iderable courage of course, to 

 prepare a photograph of these 

 jumping tarantulas from nature; 

 but the apparatus was so ar- 

 ranged beforehand, that the spid- 

 er could not reach the hand — ^in 

 case it should have made a leap. 

 Both photos were prepared in the 

 presence of Mr. A Koep Jr., of 

 San Antonio, one of our camping 

 party. 



With the above memoranda, it 

 also affords me much pleasure in 

 appending an unusual fine and 

 rare microscopic photograph of 

 the hull or skeleton of a very mi- 

 nute young tarantula entangled in 

 the web-linings of the old cocoon 

 in which, with numbers of others 

 of its former host had been 

 hatched. 



After myriads of the. globular 

 yellowish-white eggs are deposit- 

 ed by the female spider inside of 

 the snow-white and silken cocoon 

 cavity and hatched out, the de- 

 veloping young broad-headed ta- 

 rantulas undergo several shedding 

 processes — similar to the meta- 

 morphosis of beetles' and other in- 

 sects; and this evolution of the 

 newborn spider is a most wonder- 

 ful phenomenon — as can be seen 

 on the pboto graph of the cast-off 

 hull of one of the newborn "little 

 fellows" showing the cast-off 

 skin in toto — photo reproduced by 

 the aid of powerful lenses of the 

 microscope. The cocoon from 

 which this young specimen was 

 photographed contained large 

 numbers of similar cast-off hulls ; 

 and the one seen herein I had 

 mounted between two slitie glasses 

 after careful removal of some of 

 the inside particles, including the 

 entangled hull and web-lining, 

 from a jumping spider cocoon. 



As seen, the spider hull is 

 suspended inside of a network of 

 spider threads— which Ihe young 

 spider itself undoutedly had spun 

 inside the cocoon previous to its 

 extrication from its old anatomy, 



as seen on the photo, the abdomin- 

 al and broad hull part shows se\r- 

 eral large cracks; through this 

 cracked shell the new-formed 

 spider extricated its entire anat- 

 omy: first all feet with pads and 

 joints; then the head parts; then 

 the thorax, and ultimately its ab- 

 domen — a wonderful process, 

 when we consider that this spider 

 hull specimen was not larger than 

 one of the minute young spiders 

 seen on one of the previous photos 

 — about the size of two pinheads ! 

 The young spiders as seen pho- 

 tographically, previous tc its pro- 

 cess of shedding, seems to en- 

 tangle themselves in the web-lin- 

 ing — perhaps spun by their own 

 abdominal spinning apparatus, 

 having thus secured a good hold 

 for the tiny but strong feet, they 

 ' manage to gradually perforate 

 the old exterior abdominal hull — 

 and retract the balance of their 

 anatomy. How else could it be 

 explained 1 It is known that even 

 at more remote age, this young 

 brood can spin a tiny web — ^hard- 

 ly visible to the naked eye, and 

 the separate globular cocoon gen- 

 erally at breeding time, is filled 

 with eggs, deposited by the old 

 female arachnidan — with no par- 

 ticular web-lining inside the 

 breeding cocoon. However, most 

 /f the types of jumping tarantiilas 

 have their eggs deposited and en- 

 cased in a separate globular co- 

 coon — which is covered by still 

 another larger cocoon membrane 

 — the shelterhouse of the old spi- 

 der; and when the young brood 

 develops they manage to escape 

 the breeding cocoon and enter the 

 large open cavity of the old host 

 where, among its spidijr thread 

 meshes, they entangle themselves 

 or spin their own web, and under- 

 go there all the peculiar shedding 

 process. 



It is interesting to note how 

 these and other types of spiders 

 act under a few drops of chloro- 

 form being dropped, or sprayed 



