AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
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has yielded its stock of white goods upon washing day. Observation of 
this brood shows that there is practically no difference between the habits 
of young Epeiroid spiders in the United States and those of the baby 
Argiopes so well described by Mr. Pollock.! 
By five o’clock in the evening the entire cavity was filled with the 
little creatures who had gradually separated from the mass in order to 
cast their skins. Great numbers of grayish white moults occupied the lines 
directly in front of the opening, to which point many of the spiderlings 
preferred to come for their moulting. (See Fig. 57.) By standing upon a 
chair and using a lens I could see the entire process in various individuals. 
The feet were thrust out, upwards, grasping the supporting lines, the abdo- 
men doubled up until it was almost at right angles with the cephalothorax, 
and sustained by threads outgoing from the spinnerets. The skin of the 
cephalothorax as it cracked open and escaped was so transparent that in 
the light of the setting sun it glistened like silver. The legs were gradually 
disengaged by slight regular movements, and issued white and transparent. 
At various points in the nest this process could be seen in divers stages 
of completion. 
This interesting colony remained in or near the original place of assem- 
blage for a week, during which time they migrated to nearby parts of the 
vine, forming thus several separate groups. From these they 
gradually, but rapidly at the last, spun themselves away and 
disappeared by aeronautic flight. I saw only one case of canni- 
balism in the entire brood; one individual was seen feeding on the carcass 
of a comrade, which it may or may not have slain. 
Mrs. Mary Treat? has related the moulting manners of a brood of young 
Turret spiders, Lycosa arenicola. When they were two weeks old these 
spiderlings strung innumerable lines of web across the mother’s 
Young back, upon which they disposed of the castoff skins of their 
Turret so ie Pate : 
gi nidisns, moults. Up to this time they had been massed upon her abdo- 
men, as well as upon her cephalothorax, but then the little 
creatures, as if by common consent, entirely forsook the abdomen as a 
resting place and devoted it to the uses of a dressingroom. Sometimes 
two or three were divesting themselves at the same time. They fastened 
themselves by a short thread to one of the lines strung across the mother’s 
back, and this held them firmly while they undressed. The skin cracked 
all around the cephalothorax and was held only by the front edge; next 
the abdomen was freed, and then came the struggle to free the legs. The 
little one worked and kicked vigorously and seemed to haye no easy task, 
but came out of the old dress in about fifteen minutes, although exhausted 
and almost lifeless. However, it was soon as bright and active as before. 
Disper- 
sion. 
‘ Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1865, page 460. See also Vol. Il., page 228, 
*Home Studies in Nature. 
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