146 JOURNAL OF THE 



may be regarded as typical. On it I recognized the remains of 

 some neuropter and of two different woolly-bear caterpillars, 

 such as hair, bits of chitinous integument, a niandible, joints 

 of leg, etc. Elytra of beetles are common. 



Does Atypus leave her tube at night to stalk her prey in the 

 open? I am inclined to think not, though the evidence which 

 determines this inclination is for the most part negative and may 

 be set aside by further observation. In the first place, she seems 

 to be independent of that somewhat unsafe means of a livelihood, 

 seeing that her tube is so well contrived and so effective a snare. 

 The snare weavers are not usually hunters. Secondly, there is 

 no special provision for egress, the tube being closed as described 

 above. Such provision is usual with the other burrowing spiders 

 that hunt on the outside of their burrows. Again, it will be 

 remembered that the feeding experitnents reported above were 

 made in the day, and we may reasonably infer that under natu- 

 ral conditions the spider is not strictly nocturnal in her feeding 

 habits. Moreover, my captive specimens have not been seen 

 out of their tubes at night.* I have observed them in the fore 

 part of the night, also in the early morning while it was yet 

 dark. The one I now have rests habitually at night about the 

 level of the earth in her jar, sometimes considerably above. On 

 the other hand, the occurrence on a certain tube of the remains 

 of a slender *' thousand-legged worm'' (Julus), devoured near 

 the first of December, suggests, though it does not prove, that 

 the spider left her tube to get it. 



It will be observed that the description of the tube of Atypus 

 given in these notes differs from that of Emerton, Wood, Aus- 

 serer, and Cambridge, cited above. They represent its aerial por- 

 tion as prostrate on the ground, serving only as a means of closing 

 the subterranean burrow. I have, indeed, seen tubes in exactly the 



*It ought to Vje said that Atypus is scrupulously neat, and accordingly tlie droppings 

 of my captive are deposited outside the tube on the glass, and generally at such a dis- 

 tance as necessitates her leaving the tube. Additional ones have been observed only in 

 the morning. It must be admitted, therefore, that she quits her tube at night at least 

 for this purpose. (Cf. note on p. 138.) 



