120 



AMERICAN SPIDEKS AND THP)IR SPINNINGWORK. 



The mother Pholcus hanging in her snare, 

 with cocoon held in her jaws. 



or July, is a pale brownish color, containing brown eggs. It resorts to dark 

 and damp places, as cellars and the under surfaces of stones. It is cer- 

 tainly remarkable to find a Line- 

 weaving si)ecies thus approximat- 

 ing the Citigradcs, frona which it 

 ,so greatly differs in other respects, 

 in the manner of caring for tlie 

 c(;|poon. 



But in this habit she is not 

 alone among her tribe. Theridium 

 carolinum forms in June a round 

 white cocoon one-tenth inch in di- 

 ameter, which she carries attached 

 by threads to her person. ^ A 

 pretty little Theridioid, Steatoda 

 maculata (Theridium maculatum 

 Linn.), is also said to carry about 

 its egg cocoon suspended between 

 the legs, and oidy relinquishes it 

 when force is used, regaining it 

 quickly if j)ossible. 

 The cocoon of Pholcus phalangioides, which is perhaps the very simplest 

 in structure of all this tribe, and I may add of all the tribes, is simply a 

 Pholcus. S*"^y covering wliich encloses the eggs, the whole being gathered 

 into a globular mass. This is held by the spider within her 

 jaws as she hangs in her ordinary position witliin her straggling web of 

 intersecting lines. In this portage of }ier egg case Pholcus approaches the 

 habit of the Citi- 

 grades and Tunnel- 

 weavers. (Fig. 124.) 

 Scytodes thora- 

 cica Latr. (Scytodes 

 cameratus Hentz) 

 has been found by 

 Mr. Emerton, in 

 New England, as a 

 house spider, which 

 he supposes has 

 been imported from 



Europe. European observers note that this spider carries her cocoon under 

 her brea.stplate, in which position it is not secured by silken threads, but 

 is held by the falces and palpi. In this habit it resembles Pholcus, with 



English Pholcus phalangioides, with her cocoon. (After Blackwall.) 



Staveley, " Britisli Spirlere," page 141. 



