The Narbonne Lycosa 



the loom works in the same mamier on 

 another segment. 



The silk disk, a sort of hardly concave 

 paten, now no longer receives aught from the 

 spinnerets in its centre; the marginal belt 

 alone increases in thickness. The piece thus 

 becomes a bowl-shaped porringer, surrounded 

 by a wide, flat edge. 



The time for the laying has come. With 

 one quick emission, the viscous, pale-yellow 

 eggs are laid in the basin, where they heap to- 

 gether in the shape of a globe which projects 

 largely outside the cavity. The spinnerets 

 are once more set going. With short move- 

 ments, as the tip of the abdomen rises and 

 falls to weave the round mat, they cover up 

 the exposed hemisphere. The result is a pill 

 set in the middle of a circular carpet 



The legs, hitherto idle, are now working. 

 They take up and break off one by one the 

 threads that keep the round mat stretched on 

 the coarse supporting network. At the same 

 time, the fangs grip this sheet, hft it by de- 

 gree tear it from its base and fold it over 

 up>on the globe of eggs. It is a laborious 

 operation. The whole edifice totters, the floor 

 collapses, fouled with sand. By a movement 

 III 



