No. 503] THE ACTIVITIES OF ARANEADS 



709 



This is an abundant form at Austin, Texas, where it 

 makes a large and irregular web beneath logs and stones, 

 usually in drier situations. In its movements it is the 

 most languid and timid species I have ever seen, waiting 

 quietly until its prey has inextricably entangled itself in 

 the web, and feigning death for a remarkably long period. 

 Both males and females are able to undergo thirst for 

 weeks at a time, an unusual faculty among spiders, and 

 to this ability it probably owes its success under the desic- 

 cating Texan sun. 



On June 13, 1907, 1 placed six females in separate glass 

 cages. Four of them when first found had each a single 

 cocoon, and each produced cocoons in captivity to the 

 number of from two to four each. One of them produced 

 five cocoons in all. 12 The season of cocooning evidently 

 extends through the whole three months of the summer. 



The cocoons are discoidal, with diameter longer than 

 the spider's body, and are made in the mornings from 

 seven o'clock to noon. In the two eases where the opera- 

 tion was observed they were spun against a vertical wall 

 of the cage, not placed horizontally. After making the 

 base, a process not seen, the spider remains quietly above 

 it until the following day, a cessation of activity quite 

 unique among araneads but thoroughly in accord with 

 Loxoscclcs's quiet disposition. Then the eggs are laid 

 upon this base, an act that occupied eight minutes in the 

 case where it was followed. Over the egg mass the 

 mother spins a thin-textured cover, swaying the spinner- 

 ets leisurely back and forth ; this cover spinning occupied 

 one hour in the case where it was timed. The mother 

 remains upon the cocoon until it hatches. 



