MATERNAL INDUSTRY: COCOONS OF ORBWEAVERS. 



81 



in Struct- 

 ure. 



a coooon much like that of our Cophinaria. Fig. 46 sliows the external 

 case, and -Fig. 45 gives a section view of the central egg sac, supported in 

 the midst of a bunch of loose flossy silk.^ 



I liavc found numbers of Copliinaria's cocoons on vacant city lots in 

 Philadelphia, strung to the stems of tall weeds on either side of a well 



traveled footpath. The mothers had safely passed througli the 

 The liigg perils of assaulting boys and voracious birds, and left these 



tokens of their maternal care in this conspicuous spot. As far 

 as examined the cocoons contained broods of healthy spiders. One excep- 

 tion, however, permitted me to see the position and structure of the egg 

 mass. It is a hemispherical mass five-sixteenths of an inch high and 

 wide. The eggs are bright yellow, contained within a delicate white or 

 pink hued membranous silken sac, through which they can be seen in 

 outline. 



It is interesting to observe that there is some variety among the mother 

 Argiopes in the manner of preparing a cocoon. I have one before me 



which is composed, 

 ya^f^^o^ first, of a soft silken 



exterior case ; then, 



of three easily sep- 

 arated layers of delicate yellow 

 silken tissue, extremely soft 

 and beautiful. Next to these 

 layers is the loose yellow flossy 

 mass hitherto described, and 

 then the brown padding which 

 surrounds the egg sac proper. 

 This brown padding is not as ^,^^^^^ p^^^g 



abundant as I commonly find Kia. 48. Cocoon cose of Argiope fasciata. Fio. 45. Section of 

 • i. j; .1 1 ii 4. same, to show the central egg sac. (After Cuvier.) 



it, tor the reason, perhaps, that 



the yellow silken envelope is so much more pronounced. Another cocoon 

 before me has in it nothing but the brown padding, scarcely a trace of 

 yellow floss, and no layers such as above described. I account for the 

 distinct layers by supposing that they were woven between well marked 

 intervals of resting. 



The Banded Argiope is not as common a spider, at least in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of Pliiladclpliia, as her congener Cophinaria. Her life ap- 

 pears to be prolonged a little further into the autumn, for I find 

 Argriope jjgj, upQji ^\^q bushes when the Basket Argiope has entirely dis- 

 rasnis appeared. Her cocoon is therefore made, as a rule, somewhat 

 later ; but it is suspended in a similar manner and in similar 

 sites. I do not find it often, and, as compared with the cocoon of Cophinaria, 



' Cuvicr, Regno Animal, Avachnidcs, pi. ii. 



