224 SUPPLEMENT TO 



trap-door spicier [N. congener, Camb.*). The cliarac- 

 teristic portions of this nest are shown in Plate XVIII., 

 and fig. A 3, in the same Phite, represents its occupant. 



The hedge-banks near Hyeres, and also about the 

 railway station of the same name, which is some 

 4 miles from the town itself, are frequently tenanted 

 by this spider. During a short stay there in May, 

 1873, I secured a large number of specimens, and 

 verified the structure of the nest by a careful exami- 

 nation of thirty-eight examples. The nest is in- 

 variably branched and furni.<;lied with a lower door, 

 but the branch is of variable length, usually short, 

 and never, as far as I could detect, quite reaches the 

 surface. In some cases this branch was so short that 

 it could scarcely contain the spider, and, under these 

 circumstances, it is not easy to conceive any other use 

 for it than that of retaining the lower door when not 

 in use. It may, however, enable the spider to take 

 up a rather better position when engaged, as she 

 frequently is if disturbed, in keeping the main tube 

 closed by pressing the lower door upwards with her 

 feet, for then her head points downwards, and her 

 abdomen rests in the branch. 



I have seen her in this attitude on several occasions 

 when I had cut out a block of earth similar to that 

 figured in the plate. The lower door is quite unlike 

 that of either of the other two double-door wafer 

 nests, being wedge-shaped, tapering from below up- 



* Mr. Pickard-Cambridge's description will be found at p, 292, below. In its 

 cbaracters this female spider (the male is unknown) most nearly resembles N. 

 (■(emcntaria, but difiers, among otber points, in markings and in having one or 

 more spines on tlie genual joint of leg, these spines being almost always absent 

 in the same joint in ccementana. The nests of the two species are totally 

 unlike. 



