TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. 221 



pulled up her collapsed tube from its attacliment to 

 the earth, and had coiled it in a confused heap. Seeing 

 this, and fearing that, in her distress and excitement, 

 she might do further damage to the young spiders, 

 which had up to that time thriven well, I made a 

 cylindrical hole for her in the earth, supposing that 

 she would at once take possession of it. On the 

 following morning, however, the mother spider had 

 advanced some vvay in building another figure-of-8 cell, 

 using the shrivelled silk of her previous dwelling as a 

 foundation. 



In twenty-four hours this second cell was complete, 

 and closely resembled the former one, save that the 

 smaller end of the 8 was turned in the opposite 

 direction, but, on examining it, I found to my surprise 

 that it was empty ! The spider had taken possession 

 of the hole I had made for her, which she had at 

 first refused to notice, and was busily employed in 

 lininfj it with silk and furnishino^ it with a covering" 

 composed of silk with earth and fragments of moss 

 woven into the surface. By mid-day the aperture 

 was completely closed, but there was no moveable 

 door. From this time (February 28) up to April 12, 

 the spider lived in this hole, which she eventually 

 furnished with a distinct wafer-door, and, as I found 

 on opening the nest, with a typical lower door also. 

 This latter was not neatly made, but still it possessed 

 all features the essential which characterize these 

 lower doors in the nests of N. Eleavora. 



So this captive Nemesia Eleanora lived in a flower- 

 pot in my bedroom for more than five months and a 

 . half, during which time she absolutely refused to 

 burrow or to attempt any kind of excavation, but 



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