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HARDWICKE' S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



NOTES ON THE NESTS OF EUROPEAN 

 TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. 



By G. H. Bryan. 



SINCE returning to England, I have been much 

 surprised that the trap-door spiders are not more 

 fully described in any popular work on entomology, 

 &c, that I have seen. 



Had the descriptions been omitted altogether, I 

 should have supposed it was because they were out 

 of place, as referring to spiders, and not to true 

 insects ; however, they are mentioned, but the reader 

 is led to infer, either that there is only one species of 

 trap-door spider, commonly called the mason spider, 

 or else, that all the spiders build their nest of a 

 simple silken tube with a tight-fitting door at the 

 surface of the ground. 



Now certainly the nests of some species are much 

 more ingeniously constructed than the simple nest 



Fig. 43— Cork or Plug-nest of Trap-door Spider (open). 3 



Fig. 4^.— Cork or Plug-nest of Trap-door Spider (closed). 



usually described, and it seems strange, therefore, 

 that no short popular sketch has, so far as I know, 

 been written on this interesting subject. 



Messrs. Kirby and Spence in their " Introduction 

 to Entomology," say: "Several species of mason 

 spiders form nests of this kind. Among these are 

 the Mygale nidulans of Walckenaer, and the Mygale 

 cratiens, or clay kneader of Latreille. Another is the 

 Mygale camentaria of Latreille, found in the south of 

 France. An allied species, the Mygale Sauvagesii is 

 found in Corsica." 



The Rev. J. G. Wood in his "Homes without 

 Hands," describes the nests of exotic trap-door 

 spiders rather fully, but does not allude to any found 

 in Europe, nearer than Albania. Nor does he even 

 mention those found in that out of the way corner of 

 Europe, in an article in the " Sunday Magazine " for 

 December 1879, entitled "More about Spiders." 



He says: "There are many species of trap-door 

 spiders, the best known of which is a native of 

 Jamaica, and is scientifically termed Cteniza nidulans. 

 His accompanying drawing of a spider and nest, is 

 identical with the one in my English edition of 

 "The Universe" by Pouchet, and which is there 

 described as representing the mason spider, Mygale 

 camentaria of Latreille, and its dwelling. 



Before the late Mr. Moggridge's valuable work, on 

 "Harvesting Ants and trap-door Spiders," was 

 published, little appears to have been known about 

 the European species. In his second volume, or 

 supplement, he makes a complete re-arrangement of 

 them, and two species are named after himself, 

 Cteniza and Nemesia Moggridgii. Their old names 

 are Cteniza fodiens and Nemesia camentaria. How- 

 ever, as " Harvesting Ants, &c," is rather an 

 expensive handbook, it is not much read by dilet- 

 tanti, except at Mentone, where Mr. Moggridge was 

 so well known, and where the spiders abound. 



Fig. 45.— Wafer-lidded nest of Trap-door Spider (open). 



Fig. 46.— Wafer-lidded nest of Trap-door Spider (closed). 



There are two genera of trap-door spiders ; namely, 

 the Ctenizas which make the so-called cork nests, 

 and the Nemesias which make generally wafer nests ; 

 both genera being plentiful in the south of Europe. 

 In the cork nests (figs. 43 and 44), the door is thick 

 and fits in to the top of the tube like a plug or short 

 cork, while in the wafer nests (as shown at figs. 45 

 and 46), the door is comparatively thin and just laps 

 over the edge of the tube. The Nemesia Moggridgii 

 is an exception to the general rule of Nemesias, and 

 constructs a nest of the "cork" type. It inhabits 

 the south of France, and is the one most generally 

 described under its old name of N. camentaria. 



All the cork nests consist of a simple unbranched 

 silken tube, with one door at the top, but the wafer 

 nests are usually more complicated. 



The simplest form of wafer nest I found occurring 

 in great numbers on the hill of Posilipo near Naples. 



