184 SUPPLEMENT TO 



of the ground, the moss, scales, and fibres of plants 

 which are woven into, and serve to conceal the aerial 

 portion, and its termination in a twisted and appa- 

 rently-closed mouth. 



Indeed, I believe that, in this specimen, the upper 

 extremity of the tube is really closed, for, when I 

 succeeded in inflating this aerial portion, the lips did 

 not part, but remained drawn together. 



It seems very extraordinary that the mouth of the 

 tube should be thus closed, so that the female spider 

 becomes a prisoner, self-immured, and I can only 

 suppose that this is a temporary condition, limited 

 perhaps to the period during which she receives the 

 visits of the male. 



At the very base of the tube I found a mass of 

 earth, roots and vegetable fibres, and in this I hoped 

 to have detected the debris of insects or other food, 

 such as I sometimes find at the bottom of and below 

 the tubes of the trap-door nests in the South, but of 

 this there was no trace. 



It is difficult to me to imagine how the spider 

 could contrive to live by the capture of worms, after 

 the fashion suggested by M. Simon; for who does 

 not know the speed with which, on the slightest 

 alarm, worms draw back into their holes and escape 

 pursuit, and the muscular power which they exert 

 in resisting any attempts to drag them out of the 

 earth ? 



M. Simon's account of the closed tube and capture 

 of worms by this spider corresponds, however, with 

 that given by Mr. Joshua Brown, the first discoverer 

 of All/pus in England. 



This gentleman communicated his discovery to Mr. 



