MATERNAL INDUSTRY: COCOONS OF ORRWKA VKRS. 



107 



loosely, by attaching threads, as is the case of some other spiders that 



make several cocoons. However, in this respect, the habit may diifer. As 

 a rule these cocoons are stretclied like those of 

 Cyclosa caudata, along the axis of tlie motlier's 

 horizontal orb, and arc thus im- 

 mediately under the maternal 

 i'g^M I r'-Sv cure. (Fig. 103.) In this posi- 



.^nV i^'ilBK^ tion I have seen them in New 

 .Jersey, and thus Mrs. Treat has 

 observed tliem, and so also Mr. 

 Emerton has described them. 

 (Fig. 104.) Our American species appears in this 

 resjject to have the .same habit as the European 

 species, Uloborus walckenaerius. 

 This mode of disposing of the cocoon, however, cannot be universal, 



for I possess a specimen, received from Dr. George Marx, which is stretched 



along a little twig, to which its orb was attached, at a point slightly above 



the cocoon string. (Fig. 105.) 



Hentz describes the cocoon of Uloborus mammeatus as tapering at both 



ends, in color whitish, wdth veins of browni,sh black, and with many small 



tubercles. He collected it in Alabama in dry places. ^ 



Fig. 100. Fic;. 101. 



Cocoon of Basilica spider: Fkj. 100, 

 the case open to sliow tlie black 

 egg ball; Fig. 101, the ball open 

 to show the inside structure. 



^^^?5> 



Fio. 102. Cocoon of 

 Uloborus, enlarged 

 to show the surface 

 points. 



VI. 



The division here indicated between species habitually making a single 

 cocoon and species habitually spinning several is, on the whole, a natural 

 one; but there are certain facts to be noted which throw a measure of 



Fi(i. 103. Cocoon string of Uloborus in position upon the snare. 



uncertainty around any such generalization. For oxaniplc, it has long been 

 supposed that Argiope cophinaria spins but one cocoon ; and, judging from 



' "Spiders of the United States," page 120, plate xix., Fig. 120. 



