88 TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. 



Of the two spiders which are shown with their cork 

 nests in Plates VII. and VI J I., the purplish grey 

 Cteniza fodiens, (Plate VII.) appears to be much rarer 

 than the brown striped Nemesia ccementaria (VIII.), at 

 any rate at Mentone. I have hitherto only succeeded 

 in obtaining four specimens of the former, though I 

 have searched repeatedly for them at Cannes and 

 Mentone, while the latter species is tolerably common. 



The nests are, however, often extremely hard to 

 find, and in some cases it is only by chance that I have 

 been able to light upon them. All these trap-door 

 spiders seem usually to prefer rather moist and shady 

 places, and sloping banks or loose terrace walls where 

 the interstices between the stones are filled up with 

 earth, and concealment is afforded by the creeping 

 lycopodium {Sdaginella denticulatci), Ceterach, spleen- 

 wort or maiden-hair ferns, with short moss and splashes 

 of white lichen to distract the eye. 



Itwas from such a terrace wall at Mentone, on March 

 26, 1872, that the nest A in Plate VII. was taken, 

 the tube running obliquely back into the earth between 

 the stones, and the door being concealed by a net- work 

 of lycopodium, one spray of which had been allowed 

 to grow on its upper surface. 



The tubes of these as of the other kinds of nest are 

 sometimes straight, but more frequently they are bent, 

 and almost always take a downward course. 



The following is Mr. Pickard-Cambridge's de- 

 scription* of Cteniza fodiens, the spider which con- 

 structs this nest. 



* The following description and remarks, printed in a different tj^ie, have 

 been kindly prepared for this work by the Rev. 0. Pickard-Cambridge, to 

 whom I sent a series of specimens of the sjiiders preserved in spirit of wine 

 and their nests. My very sincere thanks are due to Mr. Pickard-Cambridge 



