214 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



Tubeweavers, and Laterigrades, especially, have been studied. The results 

 from experimental hatcJiing are but little different from those wliich 

 everywhere transpire in Nature, and, taken together witli numerous facts 

 noted afield, enable us to accurately sketch the life of the infant spider 

 just after deliverance from the cocoon. 



One example, followed consecutively, will illustrate the habits of Orb- 

 weavers. Early in May a cocoon of Epeira insularis was taken from a 

 tree on the banks of the Schuylkill. It had been placed by 

 First Q^Q mother spider on the under side of a branch, where it 



n^fH ° ^^^ ^^^^ protected from the weather, and consisted externally 

 Life °^ ^ ^^^^ ^^ thick, yellow, curled floss, about one-half an incli in 



diameter. (Fig. 245, 0.) This was attached to the limb by a 

 thin coating of white tissue, from which short, strong cords entered the 

 ball. Within the ball were about one hundred young spiders, just fully 

 hatched. The cocoon was placed in a paper box, and the spidcrlings re- 

 mained shut up in it until May 13th. Meanwhile they had made their 

 first moult. This cocoon was now opened and put within a large covered 

 paper box, which, by a dent in the side, had free communication with 



the outside. Next morning I found that 

 the spiderlings had issued from the box 

 and woven a mass of delicate webbing 

 over the surrounding objects upon the 

 table. The lines were most closely spun 

 near the points of exit, where they re- 

 sembled a delicate tissue web. They were 



Fig. 246. Cocoon (C) of Insular spider, on carried aloug thc tablo OU OUC sidc tO 

 the under side of a twig. i-, £ r j: ^ ii r 



a distance or five feet, on another of 

 two feet, and thc lines decreased in number as the distance increased. 

 Where threads were dense the spiderlings were massed (0, Fig. 246) in 

 large numbers, and as the lines thinned out the numbers decreased, until 

 at each of the two points where the spinningwork ceased were one or two 

 pioneers engaged in pushing the lines further from the centre. 



In point of fact, this last sentence expresses the general instinct which 

 controls the young on their first issue from the cocoon— they spin away, 

 and away from the home cradle, restlessly further and furtlier, until tliey 

 are arrested by satisfactory surroundings and further flight is hindered, 

 or until they pause to undergo another moult. This is undoubtedly the 

 impulse bestowed by Nature for the dispersion of the brood, 

 Distribu- ^^,j^}j jj^ YJg^ ^Q j^j^g distribution and preservation of the species, 

 Sneoies Primarily, perhaps, to the preservation of the young from their 

 own cannibal propensities. In order to test this matter and de- 

 cide the mode of procedure, I fixed attention upon one of thc outposts. 

 Three feet from the main assembly (0, Fig. 246) a single straggler had 

 carried or followed a line. 



