TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. 181 



corded, to see how fruitful this tield of inquiry has 

 ah'eady proved. 



Before this little work was published, only one 

 type of trap- door nest was known in Europe; two 

 new types were described in its pages, and I have 

 now the pleasure of being able to bring three more 

 hitherto unknown European types before the notice 

 of my readers, thus raising the number to six in all. 

 I do not include in these six types the very curious, 

 and still imperfectly-known nest of Atijpus f a spider 

 which is a true representative of the trap-door group 

 as far as its structural characters are concerned, but 

 which, although it excavates a silk-lined burrow in 

 the earth, does not appear to construct any kind of 

 door at the mouth of its tube. 



Much uncertainty still hangs over the habits of 

 this spider, as the facts hitherto recorded, though 

 perfectly authentic, are difficult to piece together into 

 a satisfactory whole. One thing, however, is clear, 

 and that is, that tliCi nests and habits of the spiders 

 of the genus Atypus (of which, as Mr. Pickard- 

 Cambridge, informs me, two if not three distinct 

 species inhabit England) merit attentive study, and 

 would most certainly repay it. Hastings, Portland, 

 the coast of Dorsetshire, and the neighbourhood of 

 London and Exeter, are the habitats hitherto cited 

 for this spider, but I cannot doubt its existence in 

 many sheltered localities on the south coast of 

 England. 



The most recent contribution to our knowledge of 



* See Ants and Spiders, page 78. ^'y^ws belongs to the sub-fomily Afypince, 

 a division which does not include any of tiie Nemesias or Ctenizas, and of 

 which indeed Atypus is the only European representative. 



