182 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWOKK. 



together. After the eggs are laid, the spider covers them with silk, draw- 

 ing the threads over from one side to the other, fastening tliem to the 

 edges of the weh below. AVhen the covering is complete, she bites off the 

 threads that hold the cocoon to the nest, and finishes off the edges with 

 her jaws. 



Phidippus galathea (Attus mystaceus Hentz) spins, before laying her 

 eggs, a thick nest of white silk, usually on the under side of a stone. In 

 this she thickens a circular patch on the side next the stone, and 

 balti- discharges her eggs upward against it. (Fig. 239.) They adhere, 

 and are subsequently covered with white silk, after the manner 

 common to Saltigrades. Mr. Emerton had a female of this species that 

 deposited her eggs in confinement; he records that, "instead of completing 

 the cocoon properly, she ate the eggs immediately after laying them,"^ a 

 breach of maternal fidelity which I believe to be rare among araneads, even 

 when cocooning in the unnatural conditions of a forced imprisonment. 



The eggs are deposited in a mass, cylindrical, conical, or hemispherical, 

 individuals of which are usually fastened together by a glutinous sub- 

 stance, but sometimes arc deposited loose, so that they roll about 

 _ „ in the hand when the cocoon envelope is cut. We are indebted 

 to Menge for the following interesting observation : After all the 

 eggs are deposited the spider rests for a season, when slie commences to 

 draw threads over the eggs, as if desirous of 

 covering them up; but it soon becomes clear 

 that something else is to follow. After a while 

 she returns to the cocoon and discharges a 

 I. «o„ n,,j- , .u «, , , V clear liquid over the eggs, which is absorbed 



Fi(i. 239. Phidippus galathea (Walck.) ^ . _ "" ' -^-^^ 



laying eggs within a silken cell. (After by them without iu any Way interfering with 



Emerton.) ^.j^^ ^^^ T\\\S CaUSCS the CggS tO SWCll tO 



such an extent that they could no longer be contained within the animal. 

 Menge thinks that this fluid proceeds from the semen pockets, which at 



this j)eriod are very much enlarged, and becomes mixed with the 

 cati male semen, so that in reality the fructification of the eggs is 



completed by the female. The mother now appears very much 

 exhausted. She lays down for a while on the eggs, and, finally, com- 

 mences to spin them over, entirely covering them.'^ 



Mr. Moggridge had the opportunity to observe the eggs laid by a 



specimen of our Cteniza califoniica, which was sent to him from America 



. ^ and kept for a while in captivity. The eggs were deposited in 



jj several clusters, at various times, upon the under surface of a 



gauze fastened upon the mouth of the box in vvliich she was 

 imprisoned. The fir^t of these groups was laid during the night, between 



' Structure and ILibits, pages 99, 100. 



' Menge, "Preussische Sjiinnen." The author adds "that it takes patience and persever- 

 ance to observe the spider during tliis entire process, and he liad only succeeded twice." 



