STATES OF INSECTS. 71 



1. Those that deposit their eggs in groups are first to 

 be considered. I shall begin with those that protect them 

 with some kind of covering. 



I have already mentioned in a former letter* the 

 silken bag with which Lycosa saccala Latr., a kind of 

 spider, surrounds her eggs, and in which she constantly 

 carries them about with her, defending them to the last 

 extremity. Many other spiders, indeed nearly the whole 

 tribe, fabricate similar pouches, but of various sizes, 

 forms, texture, and colours. Some are scarcely so big 

 as a pea, others of the size of a large gooseberry ; some 

 globular, some bell-shaped ; others, the genus Thomisus 

 Walck. in particular, depressed like a lupine ; some of a 

 close texture like silk ; others of a looser fabric resem- 

 bling wool : some consisting of a single pellicle, but most 

 of a double, of which the interior is finer and softer b ; 

 some white ; others inclining to blue ; others again yel- 

 low or reddish; most of them are of a whole colour, but 

 that of Epeirajasciata is gray varied with black c . And 

 while the parent spider of some kinds (the Lupi) always 

 carries her egg-bag attached to her anus, others hold 

 them by their palpi and maxillae ; and others suspend 

 them by a long thread, or simply fasten them in different 

 situations, either constantly remaining near them (the 

 Telarice), or wholly deserting them (the Retiarice). The 

 eggs of one of these last Lister describes as often fixed 

 in a very singular situation — the cavity at the end of a 

 ripe cherry ; and thus, as he expresses it — " Stomachi 

 maxime delicatuli quoties hanc innocuam buccam non minus 

 ignoranter quam avide devorarunt^P 



a Vol. I. p. 359—. 



b Latr. Hist. Nat. des Fourmis, 334. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. ii. 284. 

 c Lister Be Aran. Tit. 13, 14. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. ii. 284. 

 * Lister Ibid. 56. Tit. 15. 



