94 SPIDERS [CH. 



terminating in a tube, and entrapping their prey. 

 Far the greater number, however, as far as their 

 habits are known at all, are earth dwellers, either 

 inhabiting more or less complex burrows of their 

 own, or sheltering under stones or in chance cavities 

 by day and emerging at night to seek food in the 

 immediate neighbourhood of their hiding-places. Some 

 of them are quite small, but the majority are large 

 robust spiders, of formidable appearance. The largest 

 known spider, Theraphosa leblondi, is found in South 

 America, and its body measures more than three and a 

 half inches in length. Few spiders have attracted more 

 attention than the fabricators of the curious " trap- 

 door ' nests, which are common in the Riviera, and 

 indeed in all the countries bordering the Mediter- 

 ranean. But abundant though they are, they are 

 extremely difficult to find, and it is generally only 

 by chance that their existence is detected. 



The Tarantula occasionally closes the mouth of 

 her tunnel with a sheet of silk in which are encrusted 

 the debris of insects or particles of soil. She does 

 this at the time when she is spinning her cocoon and 

 any intrusion is particularly inopportune, but she 

 does it also on other occasions which are not so easily 

 accounted for. A reason which would naturally occur 

 to us would be the exclusion of excessive rain or 

 excessive sunshine, but the facts, unfortunately, do 

 not accord with this explanation. 



