Fig. 58.
The Lycosas carry their cocoons about, attached to the spinnerets, as in [Fig. 57], bumping them over the stones without injury to the young inside.
Many spiders make their cocoons against a flat surface, where they remain attached by one side. Attus mystaceus spins, before laying, a thick nest of white silk on the under side of a stone. In this she thickens a circular patch on the upper side, next the stone, and discharges her eggs upward against it, [Fig. 58]. They adhere, and are covered with white silk. I once had a spider of this species lay her eggs, in confinement, in a nest the under side of which had been cut away. Instead of completing the cocoon properly, she ate the eggs immediately after laying. Epeira strix spins, before laying, a bunch of loose silk, [Fig. 59]. She touches her spinnerets, as in the figure on the left, draws them away a short distance, at the same time pressing upward with the hind-feet, as in the figure on the right; then moves the abdomen a little sidewise, and attaches the band of threads so as to form a loop. She keeps making these loops, turning round, at the same time, so as to form a rounded bunch of them, into the middle of which she afterwards lays the eggs, as in [Fig. 60]. The eggs, which are like a drop of jelly, are held up by the loose threads till the spider has time to spin under them a covering of stronger silk. Epeira vulgaris makes a similar cocoon upward, downward, or sidewise, as may be most convenient.
Fig. 59.