160 



SPIDERS 



nest have been discovered in different parts of the world, some of 

 them of even more compHcated design. 



The majority of hunting spiders Uve in silken cells under stones, 

 bark or fallen logs. Some of the smaller species seem to be absolute 

 wanderers and have no home at all, spending the night under any 

 suitable rock or stone that they come across, whilst the larger 

 kinds live permanently in burrows from which they never go far. 



Fig. 34. Trapdoor spider and burrow. (After Moggridge, 1873.) 



Habits vary considerably. One handsomely marked wolf spider, 

 Arctosa perita, makes its silk lined burrows in dunes of firm sand 

 and on heathland where the vegetation has been burned away. 

 When alarmed it will seize with its chelicerae the rim of the silk 

 that lines its burrow, and pull it across the entrance like a curtain. 

 Then rapidly turning round it closes the last chink with a few 



