140 TRAP- DOOR SPIDERS. 



the burrow, and runs to the door only when she sees it 

 threatened, in order to keep the door firmly closed. On the 

 contrary, always standing at the door as sentinel, she leaves 

 it as soon as she thinks it in danger, so that it can be raised 

 without the least effort : but if you hold it a little raised 

 without making any sign of movement, she turns on her 

 back, and comes out to draw it down with her feet, making 

 all the efforts she can to conquer the obstacle. But if 

 you take it away entirely, she turns down the edges to 

 close the aperture as best she car, and that she does hurriedly, 

 without waiting for night. The li^ht seems to offend her 

 so much that, if exposed to the full day, she remains so 

 stupefied as to appear dead, nor does she move even if 

 shaken ; on the contrary, she constantly stops still and 

 holds herself with her feet pressed against her body. At 

 last, if very much disturbed, she runs quickly for some 

 distance, till she finds a place in which to hide her head, and 

 from thence she does not stir. I have observed that the bur- 

 rows are always short when the aperture is small, and in- 

 crease in length as they augment in diameter, which makes 

 me conclude that it is not true that they begin their excava- 

 tions from the base of the mother's tube, where I have never 

 found any communication with others. This spider is found 

 in the neighbourhood of Naples (ne' contorni della Capitale), 

 on the Camaldoli, in the island of Ischia, where it lives near 

 the sources of mineral waters, in Gaeta at the foot of the 

 olive trees, among the stones in the ground, &c. &c. 



"Observation. The difference which distinguishes our My- 

 gale from the Sauvagesii consists, first, in the toothing of the 

 mandibles, which is observable on one side only of the chan- 

 nel, and not on both ; secondl}^ in the tarsi all equally armed 

 with spines, and not only the four anterior ones ; thirdly, in 

 the colour of the thorax and the abdomen, which is not 

 uniform as is usual in the Sauvagesii. Nevertheless, such 

 differences might be in part climatic, which would cause our 

 Mygale to be considered as a mere variety of the same 

 species, and the others might be the result of the different 

 method of examining the parts, and of the goodness of the 

 instruments," 



