SOME ARACHNIDS AT HANOVER, CAPE COLONY. 153 



What has made this spider abandon its trap-door nest and adopt 

 the projecting tube habit? The karoo is dry and dusty and wind 

 swept, and so one can easily understand why an underground, doorless 

 hole should have a projecting funnel; but this will hardly account for 

 the abandoning of the trap-door. 



One may note, however, that one of the most common spiders here 

 is a Lycosa (L. subvittata) which sinks a hole in the ground with 

 projecting tube with irregular rim. A trained eye can generally 

 detect the difference between these two nests at a glance, though some- 

 times even such an eye will be at fault; but, to the untrained eye, the 

 projecting tubes are so much alike that they are, in the majority of 

 cases, indistinguishable. Now, this Lycosa belongs to a wholly dif- 

 ferent family of spiders, in the two-lunged group; it is a less hand- 

 some, smaller spider, pugnacious when handled and remarkably active 

 and wary unlike Hermachastes, which is slow and dull. Can it be 

 a case of imitation, and that Hermachastes has adopted the habit of 

 building a nest like L. subvittata in a part of the country where this 

 tube-building Lycosa is common all over the veld? The interest 

 deepens, as will be seen, when I come to describe the habits of another 

 Lycosa. 



There is another trap-door spider, Hermacha (also a new species), 

 closely allied to Hermachastes, which also has a doorless hole but no 

 projecting tube. Its hole, which is sometimes ten inches deep and 

 beautifully lined with white silk, just ends straight off, level with 

 the surface of the ground. Frequently, however, the opening has 

 a delicate, smoke-like web curtain spun across it, which effectually 

 prevents dust getting into it and bars the way to such enemies as do 

 not dig the spider out. Dr. Purcell thinks this habit may be merely 

 the spider's way of shutting itself in when moulting, but it seems to 

 me to occur too frequently and the inmate to be too lively for the 

 acceptance of such an explanation. Hermacha builds in stiff clayey 

 (brak) soil, which cakes like a stone when dry. When dug up, it 

 shows fight, rearing itself up, raising its legs, and throwing forward 

 and parting its fangs so that a bright red gap is exposed between 

 them. The nest of Hermacha was unknown until I found it here. 



Passing by several new and interesting species of this family, we 

 come to perhaps its most representative members, the large spiders 

 that make the largest and strongest doors. Of these I have found 

 three species here, two new Stasimopus and one new Gorgyrella (a 

 new genus, recently named by Dr. Purcell.) These two forms are 

 closely allied and superficially bear a strong resemblance to each other, 

 except that, generally, Stasimopus has a darker cephalothorax and 

 legs. They are slow in their movements, large, with powerful digging 

 teeth and stout, strong, shortish legs. Their silk-lined holes are prac- 



