BURROWING HABITS OP SPIDERS. 



25 



is composed of wliatever material Tigrina can reach with lier long hind 



legs, while her fore legs rest in the edge of her tuhe. This funnel is the 



foundation of a concealed room, whicli it sometimes takes the 



Burrow- gpifier several nights to build. It seems to refrain from working 



ing- Meth- 

 ods. 



Lycosa 

 Tigrina. 



during the day. Mrs. Treat saj^s that the burrow of Tigrina is 



uniformly straight. My observation is entirely different ; that of 

 Arenicola is uniformly straight down, but Tigrina builds a bent burrow as 

 above described. 



A female of this species had a nest in a bed of green moss, and the 

 cover looked like a moundlet of moss and leaves. The longest diameter 



measured five inches, and the shortest four and a half inches. 



The base cover was made of acorn cups and sticks firmly held 



together with threads of silk. Then a silken canopy was spun, and 

 over this were laid green moss, dry leaves, and sticks held fast with spin- 

 ningwork. This made a neat little u^jper room, the walls of which were 

 smooth, silk lined within, but showed natural inequalities on the outside. 



A window was left in the room, the use of which soon appeared. 

 Maternal rpj^^ builder had an egg cocoon attached to her spinnerets, and 



would put herself in position to let this rest against the window 

 where it received the rays of the sun. For three weeks this was her daily 

 occupation, patiently holding her egg sac in the sunlight. Was she not con- 

 scious of the fact that this aided the healthful development of her progeny ? 

 On the '10th of May the observer removed the cover from the burrow, 

 and toward evening Tigrina began to restore it. She reached out her hind 

 legs, feeling for material, and first drew in an acorn cup and proceeded to 

 fasten it. On the following morning (May 21st) a broad funnel shaped 

 ring had been built around the tube, but not covering it. By May 24th 

 the spider had made a room above her burrow lightly covered with moss.^ 

 The male of Tigrina is a handsome fellow and nearly as large as the 

 female. In color he is a light snuff brown, with dashes of dark purple, 

 while the legs are striped like a tiger's. The female is nearly black. The 

 male takes as much pains in building its domicile as the female; indeed, 

 one confined in a jar entirely outdid the female in making a tasteful retreat. 

 He utilized a little twining plant by winding his web around it, thus mak- 

 ing a living green bower over his tube. 



A New Hampshire Lycosa whose species is unknown was taken from 

 a burrow sixteen inches deep by Mrs. Treat, and placed in a glass jar with 



five inches of moist earth well pressed down. It soon commenced 



Lycosa ^^ ^-^ ^ burrow next the glass, giving a fine opportunity to see 



iggmg. ^^ ^.Qj.jj^ n jjyg ^jjg earth loose with its mandibles and with the 



fore feet compressed it into a pellet. It again turned, seized the ball in 



its mandibles, necessitating a third turn, and then came to the edge of the 



1 American Naturalist, August, 1879, page 488. 



