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breast, where it may be in safety, and that after having at- 
tached it, as before, she betakes herself to flight. 
Degeer having enclosed in a box, a female of the species 
ruricola , she spun there, against its walls, a stratum of white 
silk, to which she attached her cocoon ; she then removed to 
a certain distance, but would return to it from time to time, 
sitting herself down upon it in an affectionate manner. This 
cocoon contained more than one hundred and eighty eggs. 
This observer presumes that the mother assists the young 
in issuing from their prison, by piercing the cocoon, and that 
this assistance is even necessary for them. The eggs disclose 
the young in June or July. The little ones remain for some 
time longer, or until their first change of skin, in the cradle 
where they were born. Less feeble, after this transformation, 
they abandon their dwelling, mount on the body of the 
mother, cling all around her abdomen, more particularly on 
the back, and arrange themselves there in a large sort of ball 
or cushion, so that the mother becomes hideous, and not to be 
recognized. She walks about every where, thus loaded with 
her progeny, which do not abandon her, and with which no 
doubt she shares her booty. Towards the end of June, or 
the commencement of July, the lycosa lit/oralis is frequently 
observed in this situation. 
Lister lias observed, in the middle of October, when the 
weather was serene, a great number of young lycosae hovering 
in the air. He tells us that he has sometimes seen them ejacu- 
late from their spinnerets, several simple threads, like the rays 
of a comet, and which exhibited all the splendour of a brilliant 
purple. Sometimes they broke the threads, and sometimes 
collected them into a little ball of snowy whiteness, moving 
their feet with rapidity all around, and above their heads. 
They abandoned themselves to the impulse of the air, and 
were transported to very considerable elevations. These long 
