1969] 
Sabath — • Gea heptagon 
371 
repaired the radii, carried the prey to the hub, wrapped it two or 
three more turns, and began feeding. Another day she shook the 
web when a leafhopper dropped into it. She ran to the prey, 
hesitated, then enswathed, wrapped and bit it. She returned to 
the hub and bobbed several times, just enough to shake the prey. 
She remained quietly at the hub about a minute, then returned 
to cut the prey loose, repaired the radii, carried the prey to the hub 
and began feeding. Once when the spider had completed two-thirds 
of the sticky spiral, a fruit fly landed in the finished portion. She 
ignored it, finished the web, sat on the hub about two seconds, and 
then went to the fly. She tore it from the web, did not repair the 
web, tore more web by dragging the fly to the hub, wrapped it there 
and began feeding. She usually threw prey remains well away from 
the web. 
Eggsacs. I found an eggsac in an upper corner of the terrarium 
on the morning of October 23, about 30 cm from the web, as far 
from the web as space allowed. A supporting tangle web formed a 
thin sparse barrier around it; the sac hung inside in a hollow area 
about 3 cm across. The sac itself (Fig. 6) was flattened and 
resembled a dried broken leaf; its longest dimension was 13 mm. 
The more exposed side was suspended by about nine threads from 
the eggsac corners and one from the bulging center; the color was 
ivory with streaks of dark silk. Under the microscope the dark 
strands appeared superimposed on the sac wall ; they gave the im- 
pression of camouflage. The less exposed side (facing the terrarium 
corner but 1.5 cm from it) was tacked to the exposed side; the 
seams were easily opened. This side was lighter ivory without the 
dark streaks. A similar eggsac was made ten days later, November 1, 
in another corner. 
Spiderlings. The evening of November 10, 19 days after the first 
eggsac was made, I put it in a vial which lay under a bright light. 
Several hours later I noticed spiderlings emerging from breaks in 
the eggsac seam. With a dissecting microscope I saw those inside 
biting threads but did not see any silk-dissolving fluid on them. 
Fortyfive black-and-white spiderlings emerged (Fig. 7) ; no un- 
developed eggs or embryos were left inside. I opened the eggsac 
made November 1, ten days earlier, and found 30 eggs or embryos 
(eggs with white leg-lines). The following day 20 hatched into 
translucent white spiderlings; 8 remained eggs with no sign of 
development; 2 were lost. 
On August 25, 1968, I found 22 Gea in sweeping one grassy 
locality just south of Portsmouth (North Carolina, Camden Co., 
