546 DESCRIPTIONS OP SOME NEW ARANEID.E, 



would run off the field and hide themselves in their crannies, as 

 ashamed, and haply not be seen abroad for four or five hours; for 

 so long have I watched the nature of this strange insect, the 

 contemplation of whose so wonderful sagacity and address has 

 amazed me; nor do I find in any chase whatsoever more cunning 

 and stratagem observed. I have found some of these spiders in 

 my garden, when the weather towards spring is very hot, but 

 they are nothing so eager in hunting as in Italy." 



So far as my experience goes, the system of architecture 

 described in respect of the Attidce is the same throughout, but 

 Wagner has described and figured the nest of Aft us ha status, 

 Clerck,* which difiers very widely from the foregoing, and which, 

 taken all in all, is of unique interest. This spider appears to 

 prefer the pine for its haunt, as it is only upon that tree that the 

 distinguished araneologist has found it, and as he is a particularly 

 careful and astute observer and an industrious collector, he would 

 have found it in other situations if it affected them. Amona: the 

 twigs of a branch of a pine, either living or dead, A. hastafus 

 constructs its nest. The shape, according to the figures, is almost 

 spherical, and the silken threads are irregularly interlaced. The 

 abundance of silk used in the structure, and its similitude in con- 

 struction to the cocoons of some Lepidoptera, affords excellent 

 protection. A tube or tunnel runs through the structure, and at 

 each end there is an oval aperture for ingress or egress. The nest 

 is thus divided into two parts, an upper and a lower, and of these 

 the latter is somewhat the larger. At night the spider reposes 

 in the tunnel, and secures herself from attack by closing the 

 apertures. The cocoon, which is oval, is placed in the lower half, 

 and at a distance from one of the openings of about one-third the 

 length of the tunnel, and a little below its " floor." The walls of 

 the tunnel are very thick, although the silk of which they are 

 constructed is loose and flocculent. Obviously a structure such as 

 the one described must naturally form an absolute protection both 

 for the eggs within the cocoon and for the young when they have 



» Lot. fit., pp. 74, 75, PI. V. fig. 100, PL iv. fig. 101, and PI. x. fig. 102. 



