24 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



[February 



advantage. The artfully hidden castle is not apparent to the 

 uninitiated while walking- over the ground, as it is commonly 

 secreted in a recess of overhanging dried grasses. Frequent 

 visits to several localities added greatly to my observations, 

 and, though the greater number were made in the late fall, at 

 the suggestion of Mr. Kmertou, some time was spent in June, 

 in the following and present year, in anticipation of finding 

 them mating. In this I was disappointed and all efforts to 

 find the male was fruitless. 



FIG. 1. (a i The Castle-building Spider, ventral view, (b) Same, dorsal surface. 

 (c) Female epiginum. Original from nature. 



One of the castles which 1 alluded to above, the first of my 

 discoveries, will be described as a means of furnishing a gen- 

 eral idea of the kind of nest made, afterwards recurring to the 

 subject of castles further on. when considering the tubes 

 throughout. When one remembers the average size of the 

 adult castle, only five-eights of an inch high, and a little over 

 one-half inch in diameter, it is obvious that close inspection is 

 quite essential. 



This castle was situated beside a half-buried piece of branch, 

 a, site which was chosen often. Around it was growing little 

 seedlings and lichens which grew from the superficial deposit 

 of vegetable mould, and giving to the surroundings the effect 

 of a small garden colored with sienna and green. The nest 

 proper was quite round ; fragments of duckweed, bark and 

 rootlets, woven together with silk, went to make up nioest of the 

 structure, while to one side a dried leaf of ragweed was ;esthet- 

 icallv curved around and attached, leaving other bits of leaves 



