88 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



Epeira cocoon protected by a tent of close spinningwork. 



In other cases, however, as in the angles of walls, porches, outhouses, 

 etc., the silken egg pad is itself enclosed in a tent of spinning work more 

 or less open. (Fig. 60.) In some cases this tent is little more than a 

 series of lines drawn across the angle at a little distance from the cocoon, 



as at Fig. 61. Strix, Sclo- 

 potaria, and Domiciliorum 

 are all in the hahit of weav- 

 ing around their cocoons 

 such a tent. 



A Domicile spider, which 

 I found in the act of com- 

 pleting her cocoon, was con- 

 tent with a scantier cover- 

 ing than this. Her egg sac 

 was an oval mass of yellow- 

 ish brown silk one and one- 

 foiu'th inch long by three- 

 fourths of an inch wide. It 

 was fastened upon a twig of 

 a pine tree. At one end short lines were thickly strung across from the 

 needle like leaves, making a sort of " fly " or awning. This 

 • °m °^^ was repeated at the other end, thus about half covering the 

 cocoon. The mother spider hung to a few threads above (Fig. 

 62) her egg nest, with shrunken abdomen, and so much exhausted as to 

 be little inclined to move. This cocoon was made September 24th. 



For the most part the outer tent is of closer texture than those above 

 described, being in fact an enclosing curtain of silken cloth, through which 

 the outline of the cocoon within may be traced. (Fig. 63.) 

 Great numbers of these tent enclosed 

 cocoons may be seen at the boat houses 

 near tlie Inlet of Atlantic City and Cape May. 

 They are made during the last daj^s of May 

 and to the middle or last of June, and again 

 in the fall. ^ The cocoons measure seven-eighths 

 of an inch long by six-eighths of an inch wide, 

 and less. The enclosing tent measures 

 Foreordi- ^^^^ j^^^ ^^^,q ,^^^ ^ |jj^j£ inches long by 



Nature ^°® ^^^ three-eighths inch wide. Fre- 

 quently the tents are overlaid one upon another, or spun close 

 to each other, as at Fig. 58. I have found three large cocoons thus 



Sheeted 

 Tent. 



Fio. 64. Egg mass of Epeira, show- 

 ing the under sheet and the mass 

 of flossy padding. 



' Of two sixicimens of Epeira sclopctaria kept by me, one cocooned May 22(1 ; tlie otlicr 

 May 26th ; a third about tlie middle of June. An Epeira domiciliorum cocooned Septem- 

 ber l(Jth. 



