316 OBSERVATIONS ON THE 
manner described in the preceding cases. In the 
autumn of the same year these spiders deposited their 
eggs in cocoons spun for their reception, out of which 
the young issued in the ensuing spring, having under- 
gone their first moult in the cocoons. 
These experiments, besides effecting the purpose 
for which they were instituted, served also to supply 
collateral evidence of the correctness of M. Audebert’s 
observations relative to the capability of the House- 
spider (Zegenaria domestica) to produce several sets of 
prolific eggs in succession without renewing its inter- 
course with the male; for three females of the species 
Agelena labyrinthica deposited each a second set of 
eggs, and a female Lyeira cucurbitina laid four con- 
secutive sets, intervals of fifteen or sixteen days inter- 
vening, all of which produced young, though these 
females had not associated with males of their species 
for a considerable period antecedent to the deposition 
of the first set of eggs *. 
Female spiders, though incapable of producing pro- 
* These results have been confirmed by subsequent researches, 
which have also served to prove that the female of Tegenaria 
civilis, when impregnated, is capable of producing many sets of 
prolific eggs in succession without further sexual intercourse, 
two years or more occasionally elapsing before all are deposited, 
and a period of ten months nearly intervening sometimes be- 
tween the deposition of two consecutive sets. (See the Report 
of the Fourteenth Meeting of the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science, held at York in 1844, Reports on the 
State of Science, pp. 6S & 69). 
