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Title
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A Pair of Spiderlings
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Date
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1898
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Creator
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Elizabeth Van Sant
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Rights
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To inquire about usage, please contact Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. These images are for educational use only. Not all images are available for publication.
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extracted text
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it under her body, seizing it with her legs and mandibles if
she thought 1¢ was in any danger.
On the morning following her capture I discovered that
Diana had come into my possession at just the right time. A
small opening had appeared on one side of the cocoon and the
tiny spiders were onerging, and by an unerring instinct were
finding their way to the back of their mother. The little
creatures wore smaller than the head of a pin, and of a wait-
4sh color, changing to light grey in a few hours. There were
about a dozen on her back whon I first discovered them. Ail
@ay they kept crawling out. By night the cocoon was nearly
empty, and there was nothing visible of Diana but her legs.
The little opiders literally covered her body, clinging to
her above and beneath, piled one upon another, From tins to
time she patiently brushed then from her eyes with her palps;
but they soon covered her again. She moved about very gently,
in marked contrast to our other spider vets of the same spe-
cies. During the day she caught several flies that were put
into the cage, managing to brush the young ones away long
enough to eat, There were probably one hundred and firty
young spiders in the brood.
The ontize household evinced their interest by cathering
around the cage in the evening. It was decided to transfer
the spider family to a cage covered with fine gauze, as the
. Bereen vas too coarse to prevent the escape of the young. In
making the transfer, about half of the brood fell off, remain—
