134? CUllIOUS LEAF-CELL. 



sitting near its mouth, the lurker, shaded by the darkness of her 

 covered way, is ready to rush forth and seize on the first hapless 

 wanderer that becomes entangled in her fatal web. This 

 cunning artificer can only be captured by the artifice of getting 

 behind, and driving her upwards and out of her tunnel, into 

 which she always desceiids upon the first alarm. 



In addition to the silken material of which they always carry 

 with them an internal magazine, there are various out-door 

 Spiders which employ leaves in the construction of their 

 retreats, and that after a fasliiort both ingenious and elegant. 



We have sometimes plucked a rolled up lilac or young oak-leaf, 

 expecting to find it tenanted by a leaf-rolling Caterpillar, when, 

 lo ! upon the scroll being opened, out ran a small long-bodied 

 Spider, which, after lining it with silk, had taken possession of 

 it as his cell. Structures more spacious, consisting not of one, 

 but of several leaves lined and united by a silken web, serve 

 often for the abodes of various Spiders found in woods and 

 gardens; but of these, few are so curious and elegant as a 

 single-leaf cell which we have often found on nettles. In this 

 the point and sides of the leaf being turned over so as to 

 meet at the edges, are conjoined with silk, and on carefully 

 forcing up one of the corners of the green triangle, we intrude 

 on the domestic privacy of a maternal Spider, keeping tender 

 watch over her bag or ball of eggs. 



Everybody must have sometimes noticed (both within doors 

 and without), a spider thus brooding over a bah 1 usuaUy bigger 



