204 , PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1888. 



Among Mr. Abbot's figures is one of this Atypus which he quite 

 happily describes as "the purse web spider", (a popuhxr name which 

 I cordially adopt), and makes a brief and correct note of its habits. 

 "This singular species," he says, "makes a web like a money purse 

 to the roots of large trees in the hammocks or swamps, five or six 

 inches out of the ground, fastened to the tree, and the other end in 

 the ground about the same depth or deeper. To the bottom of that 

 part in the ground the spider retreats. I imagine they come out 

 and seek their food by night as I never observed one out of its web. 

 In November their young ones in vast numbers cover the abdomen 

 of the female and the abdomen then appears very much shrunk. 

 The male is the smallest, but has the longest nippers. Taken in 

 March and is not common." ^ 



The description of Hentz " was made from a single specimen, a 

 male, found in June on newly turned soil at North- 

 ^ / ,\ ^ „ ampton, Mass. Mr. AVilliam Holden reports it as 

 collected in Ohio.^ The spider ought therefore to be 

 found in the Middle and Atlantic States of America, 

 but I have never been so fortunate as to see it therein, 

 and have never heard of any one who happened 

 Fig. 1. Atypus upon it. It probablv is not abundant, or its nesting 

 habits must be greatly modified by change of latitude ; 

 otherwise one would suppose that its very conspicuous nest would 

 not have escaped notice. Or, may we suppose that it is disappear- 

 ing, perhaps has disappeared before the progress of human civiliza- 

 tion ? 



II. DESCEIPTIOX OF THE NESTS. 



The Florida nests are silken tubes of various lengths and sizes, 

 ranging from ten inches long and three-fourths inch in diameter, to 

 minute silken pipes a few inches long, and about one-eighth inch in 

 diameter. Externally most of them present a dark, weather beaten 

 appearance and are covered with more or less sand. Inside, the 

 silk is white and clean. The texture of the material of which the 

 nest is spun is quite close, resembling a rough-finished bit of silk 

 cloth. 



1 Manuscript Drawings of the insects of Georgia in America by John Abbot of 

 Savannah. Vol. xiv, 179:2. Zoological Librarj- of the British Museum of Natural 

 History. 



2 Spiders of the United States, p. 19. Plate ii., fig. 1. Hentz knew nothing of 

 the habits of his species. 



3 Id. Emerson's note. 



