1:18 TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. 



perhaps, discover the happy families spoken of by M. 

 Dorthes, but wliich it has never been my good for- 

 tune to see. It is not known positively whether the 

 male spider ever assists in the construction of the 

 nest, but, as we know that the female is able to make 

 it without his aid, there seems no reason to suppose 

 that he does. 



I have seen the female Nemesia meridionalis construct 

 a trap-door in captivity, after having been placed on a 

 flower-pot full of earth in which I had made a cylin- 

 drical hole.* She quickly disappeared into this hole, 

 and, during the night following the day of her 

 capture, she made a thin web over the aperture, into 

 which she wove any materials which came to hand. 

 The trap-door at this stage resembled a rudely con- 

 structed, horizontal, geometrical web, attached by two 

 or three threads to the earth at the mouth of the hole, 

 while in this web were caught tlie bits of earth, roots, 

 moss, leaves &c. which the spider had thrown into it 

 from above. After the second night the door appeared 

 nearly of the normal texture and thickness, but in no 

 case would it open completely, and it seemed that the 

 spider was too much disgusted with her quarters to 

 think it worth while to make a perfect door. I believe 

 that when a door is finished the few threads which 

 served as supports and connected it with the earth on 

 either side of the hinge are severed, and this is borne 

 out by the following instance. While I was at work 

 one evening drawing the spider's nest concealed in the 

 plant of ceterach fern (Plate XI., fig. A, p. 105) which 

 I had dug out for the purpose, i detected something 



* An account of fiirther experiments with captive spiders will be found in 

 Appendix G. 



