TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. 95 



found one of these spiders ready to oppose me, though 

 Nemeiiia meridionalis and N. Elecuwra frequently 

 did so. Many times, wishing to provoke them, I have 

 tapped at the door in order to apprise the occupant of 

 my arrival, or lifted it and let it fall again, and always 

 in vain, though the spider was there, crouching at 

 the bottom of her tube. 



Indeed I can only recall six or eight instances in 

 which this spider did hold down her door, and on 

 three of these she was captured. 



I will now relate what I saw on one of these 

 occasions,* for there has been much speculation as to 

 the manner in which the spider clings to the door and 

 offers the determined resistance which is experienced. 



No sooner had I gently touched the door with the 

 point of a penknife than it was drawn slowly down- 

 wards, with a movement which reminded me of the 

 tightening of a limpet on a sea- rock, so that the crovvn 

 which at first projected a little way above, finally lay 

 a little below the surface of the soil. I then contrived 

 to raise the door very gradually, despite the strenuous 

 efforts of the occupant, till at length I was just able 

 to see into the nest, and to distinguish the spider 

 holding on to the door with all her might, lying back 

 downwards, with her fangs and all her claws driven 

 into the silk lining of the under surface of the door. 

 The body of the spider was placed across, and filled 

 up, the tube, the head being away from the hinge, and 



* Mrs. Boyle was the tirst to witness this curious sight, and my descrip- 

 tion of the resistance of the spider is almost an exact repetition of hers to 

 me. It is curious also that, following her indications, I found the very nest 

 and spider on which she had made her observations, and every detail 

 recurred again though several days had elapsed between her visit and mine. 



