238 SUPPLEMENT TO 



But, as it is, the work of opening tlie door, 

 snatching in an ant, and closing it again, is but the 

 affair of a second or two, and before the companions 

 of the victim have time to reahze the nature of the 

 phenomenon, the gaping earth has closed again and 

 become once more, to all appearance, part of the solid 

 and trustworthy ground. 



I have seen N. MandersijerncB snatch at insects in this 

 way during the daytime, and I well remember how I 

 started on one occasion when, as I was looking fixedly 

 at a small blue gnat which I had taken for a moth, I 

 saw the earth suddenly open and one of these spiders 

 partly emerge, make a swift stroke at the insect, and 

 withdraw agaui as swiftly. 



I have found the remains of ants, of beetles of 

 many species and different sizes, of wood-lice {0?iisciis), 

 and of earwigs {Forjicula) in the nests of N. Eleanora 

 and N. Manderstjernce, and the wings of a large green 

 field-bug in the nest of the former. I have only once 

 detected traces of food in the dwellings of Cteniza 

 Mogyridgii, and these consisted of minute fragments 

 of the integuments of insects, none of which were 

 certainly recognisable, though I believe that they 

 partly consisted of the coats of a small species of ant. 

 The rarity or complete absence of the wings of insects 

 which habitually ffy rather than crawl on the ground, 

 and my inability to discover either snares or any 

 evidence that these spiders ever leave the nest, lead 

 me to believe that they live (at any rare from October 

 to May) by dragging into their nests any insects 

 which approach within reach. 



Ants, earwigs, beetles, and wood lice are precisely 

 the very creatures which would fall a prey to the 



