MATERNAL INDUSTRY: COCOONS OF ORBWEAVERS. 



89 



Fig. 65. Egg mass of Epeira, showing 

 tlic under sheet and outer covering 

 removed. 



overlaid, and the outer tent, four inches long, covered the others so com- 

 pletely that one might have supposed the whole to be the work of one 

 spider. Undoubtedly, these works are precau- 

 tions against both enemies and the weather, 

 which, although without experience of the ef- 

 fects of either upon her offspring, the mother 

 takes as though she really foresaw the danger. 

 If an egg nest of this class be opened 

 there will be found, in order, first, the outer 

 tent, separate from tlie covering of the cocoon ; second, . a thin white 

 silken sheet, which is the outer envelope of the cocoon projjer ; 

 Interior jiiji-d^ the thick egg pad of curled silk, usually yellow; fourth, 

 the eggs, a conical or hemispherical or spherical mass of small 

 yellow globules. (Fig. 64.) When the spider oviposits against a flat sur- 

 face, the eggs are generally laid upon a coating or sheet of silk spread 

 upon the surface, and the padding is then woven over it in the manner 

 of Argiopo cophinaria. If the cocoon is suspended within a maze of lines, 

 the eggs arc laid in the midst of the curled nest or egg pad, which is after- 

 wards completed. . 



The cocoon of Epeira cinerea shows a variation from the common type 

 of her congeners. The egg pad is a large flattened hemisphere, an inch 



.-..:.-,■•. ■■■-:.; ill diameter, and one-fourth to three-eighths of 



an inch thick. This is spun against some flat 

 surface, the boards of a shed, as I have seen it, 

 upon a light cushion of curled yellow silk. Over 

 and around this, on all sides, is woven the egg 

 pad, which is flattened down quite compactly, 

 and the whole mass lashed at the edges to the surface. The entire 

 cocoon has a diameter of one and five-eighths inch or more, and is a 

 quarter or three-eighths of an inch thick at the centre. (Fig. 60.) 



Fiu. 66. Cocoon of Epeira cinerea. 



III. 



Epeira triai'anea makes a cocoon of the common type, but smaller. Of 

 two now before me, spun in bottles, one measures one-fifth of an inch, 

 and the other about half that. They are both round or ovoid 

 peira flaggy masses, protected by a maze of intersecting lines spun 

 ' around them. This maze is often thickened into a tent, in which 

 condition I have observed numbers spun in the angles of the joists of a 

 cellar at Atlantic City, in the early s^jring (May 22d), full of young spider- 

 lings just ready to emei'ge. These cocoons measured one-half inch long, 

 which is somewhat above the normal length. 



One female was observed (New Lisbon, Ohio), whose cocoon was wrapped 

 up within a rolled leaf. This was swung to a cord, attached at one end 



