TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. 183 



may remark a part where the tissue is thinner and 

 more transparent. I have not been able to detect an 

 opening, but it is probable that the Atfjpus can easily 

 part the not very compact threads, and thus obtain 

 for itself an easy prey, and dispense with the necessity 

 of ascending to the surface of the ground. When 

 taken out of its tube, Atypus does not even attempt to 

 escape ; it is therefore plain that it is not organized 

 for the pursuit of an active prey ; and, on the other 

 hand, the upper extremity of the tube is ill-adapted 

 for an ambuscade, being almost closed, and without 

 support. This small opening would seem to be solely 

 intended for the entrance and exit of the male (a very 

 much smaller creature than the female) during the 

 breeding season, which occurs in the month of 

 October." 



M. Simon says that this 'species of Afyjons is 

 common in all the centre, east and west of France, 

 and that he has detected it in great abundance in the 

 neighbourhood of Troyes, in Champagne, in the 

 month of October, when the male was inhabiting the 

 same tube with the female.* I am greatly indebted 

 to M. Simon for having given me the specimen of a 

 silk tube taken entire from a nest found in this 

 locality, which I have figured in Plate XIII., fig. A. It 

 will be seen that the tube has collapsed, but one may 

 still trace the enlargement near the base which forms 

 the chamber, the elbow where it is bent at the surface 



* M. Simon has discovered another species of Atypus at Digne in the 

 Basses Alpes which constructs a similar nest to that descrihed above. This 

 species was detected for the first time by M. Simon and described bj him under 

 the name of Atypus bleodonticus. 



