84 TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. 



and it has often been asked what this could possibly 

 mean. 



Some have thought that the drawing was fanciful, 

 others that it was made from an abnormal or injured 

 nest. However, I believe that the drawing, though 

 rude, is, in fact, not ver}^ incorrect, and shows a case 

 of repair or enlargement of the nest, a subject to be 

 treated of more fully further on. There is a specimen 

 exhibited in the British Museum which in this respect 

 very nearly corresponds with Browne's figure ; it is 

 labelled " Nest of Trap-door Spider with two doors, 

 from the spider having enlarged its abode. — Jamaica." 

 Here one sees that the spider has prolonged its tube 

 about half an inch beyond the original mouth of the 

 nest, where it has constructed a new mouth and door, 

 the old door standing straight up at the back of and 

 behind the new one. 



I imagine that the explanation of this curious piece 

 of cobbling may be somewhat as follows : — When the 

 nest was in its original state and had but one door, 

 this door became by some accident covered over with 

 earth to about the depth of half an inch, and the in- 

 mate was thus imprisoned. Then the sj)ider, being, 

 like most other members of its order, very unwilling 

 to abandon its home, determined to clear away the 

 entrance to its nest, and to lengthen the tube so that 

 it should reach up to the new level of the surftice of 



the earth If I am right, this should rather be 



called a lengthening than an enlargement of the tube. 



The nests of the cork type (A, p. 7t)) may usually be 

 distinguished at a glance from those of the wafer type 

 by the greater thickness of the door, and by its manner 

 of shutting, but a nest from Morocco has been figured 



