124 TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. 



of some nests which I have observed, I am inclined 

 to think that they must have been inhabited for 

 more than a twelvemonth. 



Evidence of the enlargement of the door is not 

 very rare to meet with, though, as a rule, the new 

 piece is woven on to the old with such neatness as 

 more or less to obscure this. In fig. B, Plate X., p. 100, 

 the old and smaller surface-door of a nest of Nemeaia 

 meridionalis is seen partially attached to the larger 

 new door, which has been constructed below it ; while 

 in fig. C of the same plate, three doors, or rather three 

 enlargements of one door, may be traced. It is this, 

 I believe, that gives rise to the tiled appearance 

 which these trap-doors sometimes present, and which 

 has caused them to be compared to oyster-shells. 

 Something similar may also be occasionally seen in 

 doors of the cork tj^pe, as, for example, in that figured 

 at A and A 1 in Plate VIII., p. 94, where the old and 

 smaller door is seen partially raised above the surface 

 of the new one. This I imagine to be merely an 

 example of rather clums}' workmanship, as, if I am 

 right, a full-sized cork door usually incloses within 

 itself several lesser doors, which formerly fitted the 

 tube and have had to be enlarg'ed. 



This is borne out by the fact that such a door will, 

 on examination, be found to consist of several layers of 

 silk, with more or less earth between each, these layers 

 decreasing in size from without inwards, and together 

 forming a sort of saucer in which the small central mass 

 of earth lies. Thus by moistening a series of the cork 

 door.s of Nemesia cceinentaria, I have been able to detach, 

 in one of medium size, from six to fourteen circular 

 patches of silk, of which the outermost, or that which 



