364 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



by a longish-bodied spider {Aranca holosericea, 

 LiNN.)j Mhich is a little larger than the common 

 hmiting spider. It rolls up a leaf of the lilac or 

 poplar, precisely in the same manner as is done 

 by the leaf-rolling caterpillars, upon whose cells it 

 sometimes seizes to save itself trouble, having first 

 expelled, or perhaps devoured, the rightful owner. 

 The spider, however, is not satisfied with the tapes- 

 try of the caterpillar, and always weaves a fresh set 

 of her own, much more close and substantial. 



Another spider common in woods and copses 

 {Ejjeira quadrata?) weaves together a great number 

 of leaves to form a dwelling for herself, and in front 

 of it she spreads her toils tor entrapping the unwary 

 insects which stray thither. These, as soon as caught, 

 are dragged into her den, and stored up for a time 

 of scarcity. Here also her eggs are deposited and 

 hatched in safety. When the cold w eather approaches, 

 and the leaves of her edifice wither, she abandons it 

 for the more secure shelter of a hollow tree, where 

 she soon dies; but the continuation of the species 

 depends upon eggs, deposited in the nest before win- 

 ter, and remaining to be hatched with the warmth 

 of the ensuing summer. 



The spider^s den of united leaves, however, which 

 has just been described, is not alw ays useless when 

 withered and deserted; for the dormouse, or the 

 harvest mouse {J\Jtis mescrius), we are not certain 

 which, usually selects it as a ready-made roof for its 

 nest of dried grass. That those old spiders' dens are 

 not accidentally chosen by the mouse, appears from 

 the fact, that out of about a dozen mouse-nests of 

 this sort found during winter in a copse between 

 Lewishain and Bromley, Kent, every second or third 

 one was furnished with such a roof.* 



* J. R. 



