Image:Drassus.sp.oviposition.-.emerton.svg

female Drassus sp. laying eggs. This genus is no longer recognized, but the spider probably belongs to the family Gnaphosidae. From the original article:
I had the good fortune to see the method of oviposition of Drassus, which carries the cocoon in its claws or leaves it loose in the nest. A female, who had been kept several days in a bottle, began her cocoon early one morning, and when i first saw her at about 6am, she had made a flat web about a cm in diameter, held by threads extending in various directions to the sides of the bottle (A in the figure). the spider stood over this web and dropped the eggs (E) in a soft mass on it. she then spun threads from one side of the web to the other, over the eggs, until they were completely covered, and finished the cocoon by biting away the threads tha held it to the bottle. This agrees exactly with Menge's description of the cocoon-making of Lycosa piratica [=Pirata piraticus]. in all his later accounts of this process, in various species of spiders, he says that, after the eggs are laid, the spider drops over them a small quantity of liquid which the eggs absorb, thereby becoming larger. this did not take place in any of the cases i have seen. the eggs were always laid in a soft and wet condition, the whole mass resembling a drop of jelly, and they were always covered immediately by the spider.

Psyche 2: 123f. http://psyche2.entclub.org/articles/2/2-123.pdf

1877

James Henry Emerton

see below