TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. 105 



grass, moss, ferns, pellitory, or the like, the stems of 

 the sheltering plants being interwoven with and made 

 to support the tube.* In every case the second door, 

 which is designed for resistance and requires a firm- 

 walled tube into which it may be wedged, is below 

 ground, and for the same reason w^e scarcely ever 

 find cork nests constructed with any part of the tube 

 projecting beyond the surface of the soil. 



At fig. A, Plate XI., one of these branched nests is 

 seen concealed in a plant of ceterach fern, and here 

 the tube is raised a short way above the soil ; while 

 in iig. B of the same plate the common form is 

 represented, the upper door lying flat on the surface 

 of the ground, from which, thanks to its covering of 

 small mosses, it is scarcely to be distinguished. 



The figs. B 1 and B 2 show this door open and the 

 lower door in its two positions. 



Now that attention has been drawn to the existence 

 of this new type of nest, I fully expect that Nemesia 

 meridionalis will be found at many points along the 

 Biviera and in the whole Mediterranean region, but 

 I have hitherto only discovered it at Mentone and 

 Cannes. Mrs. Boyle saw one of these nests in the 

 Pallavicini gardens near Genoa, and there seems every 

 reason to believe that certain nests which have been 

 detected near Naples and in Ischia, will, wdien better 

 known, be found to be of the branched double-door type. 



It seems probable that our spider belongs to the 

 species which was first described by M. Costa, f under 



* This aerial portion of tlie tube corresponds with that of A typus piceiis 

 described above (p. 7^), but differs in having its aperture closed Ijy a door. 



t Fauna del Kegno di Napoli, (vol. containing Animali Articoluli, classe ii, 

 Aracnidi : incomplete, Naples, 18G1), p. 14, tab. i. figs. 1-4. See 

 Appendix A. 



