MATERNAL INDUSTRY : COCOONS OF ORBWEAVERS. 



93 



is of a yellow color, and so slight as to show the loose mass of eggs within. 



(Fig. 70.) It appears to resemhle quite exactly the cocoon of its congeners 



in Africa and the West India Islands. 



Nephila ^q^ cxami)lc, the cocoon of Ncphila ni- 

 Cocoons. \. , ,, ,,. . . J. 



gra, accordnig to Dr. Vnison/ is oi a 



beautiful yellow color, and is attached to the hark 

 of trees, or spun against the surface of some re- 

 cess. Nephila maurata spins a large cocoon, of a 

 heautiful orange yellow color. This is not attached 

 to lier snare, but is woven against any adjacent 

 recess, or in some shaded place near to her, al- 

 though sometimes she goes quite a distance from 

 her web to find a cocooning site. The orange 

 colored egg sac is enclosed in a flossy envelope 

 of a paler color. ^^ 



If we may credit the statement, or rather the 

 illustration of Mr. Wood, the Nephilas of the 

 West Indies, which are there known as the Tufted 

 spider, spin a cocoon similar to that described, but 

 suspended to the stalks of various plants, instead 

 of being hung beneath leaves or woven against 

 hard surfaces. ^ The figure presented by Mr. 

 Wood, and which is here reproduced, is said by 

 the author to be made from specimens in the 

 British Museum, although I do not remember to 

 have seen these when examining the collections of spinningwork at Ken- 

 sington several years ago. 



IV. 



I have several cocoons of our American Gasteracantha, two of which 



were sent from Southern California by Mrs. Eigcnmann. A third was 



woven by a living female sent from the same section ; and a 



Gastera- {^^^,,^1, ^j^g received from Dr. George Marx, of Washington. The 



latter is attached to the bark of a twig, upon which it is spun. 



It is a flossy button or wad of a bright yellow color. The outer strands 



of the spinningwork have a glossy appearance. It is about three-fourths 



inch long and one-half inch wide. (Fig. 72, and Plate IV., Vol. II.) The 



California examples are smaller but similar. 



Tliese cocoons are, in structure, like those of their African congeners 

 ^as described by M. Vinson.* This author describes a cocoon of Gastera- 

 cantha bourbonica as an ovoid, round and flattened, woolly wad of a yellow 



' Araneides dcs Madagascar, etc., page 191. ' Idem, page 186. 



' " Homes Without Hands," page 584. 



■* Araneides Rdmiion, Maurice, et Matlagascar, page 238. 



Fig. 72. Cocoon of a California 

 Gasteracantha, woven upon 

 curled leaves. 



