114 TRAP- DOOR SPIDERS. 



tlie control of this wonderful maternal resolution, 

 slackened and fell abroad.* 



I need scarcely say that the small spiders were 

 killed by the spirit in a very few instants, but 

 it is almost certain that the mother was alive 

 and conscious for half an hour. Now this pain can 

 easily be spared by placing large spiders for about 

 ten minutes in a closed box with a piece of cotton 

 wool steeped in chloroform beside them, before drop- 

 ping them into the spirit of wine, a system which I 

 have since that day adopted and found to answer 

 perfectly. 



I examined these young spiders carefully, hoping 

 to detect some males among them, but the males, 

 though they differ markedly from the females when 

 adult in their smaller size and curious!}^- enlarged 

 palpi, do not appear to afford any distinctive mark at 

 this early period. It appeared that these spiders had 

 been but recently hatched, for some among them 

 were still semi-transparent. 



I have never found young spiders in the nests of 

 Cteniza fodiens or Nemesia ca7ne?itaria. 



M, de Walckenaerf quotes a statement made by 

 M. Eossi to the effect that Cteniza fodiens carries 

 its young on her back, as certain species of Lycosa 

 (Tarantula) do. He points out the interest which 

 would attach to this observation if confirmed, as show- 

 ing a similarity in habit between the two groups, 

 which are otherwise nearly related. 



* My own impression is that this act was one of conscious protection on 

 the part of the niotber spider ; but Mr. Pickard-Cambridge doubts this, 

 and would attribute the action to the tendency which spiders commonly 

 display to clutch at any material object when dying in this way. 



t Walckenaer (C. A. de), Les Aran^ides de France (date ?), p. 5, 



