366 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



females afterwards fixed a close bag to the edge of 

 the glass, from which the water was expelled by the 

 air from the spinneret, and thus a cell was formed 

 capable of containing the whole animal. Here they 

 remained quietly, with their abdomens in their cells, 

 and their bodies still plunged in the water ; and in a 

 short time brimstone-coloured bags of eggs appeared 

 in each cell, filling it about a fourth part. On the 1th 

 of July several young ones swam out from one of the 

 bags : — all this time the old ones had nothing to eat, 

 and yet they never attacked one another, as other 

 spiders would have been apt to do."* 



" These spiders," says De Geer, " spin in the water 

 a cell of strong, closely woven, white silk in the form 

 of half the shell of a pigeon's egg, or like a diving-bell. 

 This is sometimes left partly above water, but at others 

 is entirely submersed, and is always attached to the 

 objects near it by a great number of irregular threads. 

 It is closed all round, but has a large opening below, 

 which, however, I found closed on the 15th of Decem- 

 ber, and the spider living quietly within, with her head 

 downwards. I made a rent in this cell and expelled 

 the air, upon which the spider came out ; yet though 

 she appeared to have been laid up for three months 

 in her winter quarters, she greedily seized upon an 

 insect and sucked it. I also found that the male as 

 well as the female constructs a similar subaqueous 

 cell, and during summer no less than in winter."t 

 We have recently kept one of these spiders for 

 several months in a glass of water, where it built a 

 cell half under water, in which it laid its eggs. 



Cleanliness of Spiders. 



When we look at the viscid material with which 

 spiders construct their lines and webs, and at the 

 * Clerck, Aranei Suecici, cap. viii. 

 t De Geer, Mem. de» Insectes, vii. 312. 



