igoS] Araneae Theraphosae of California 225 



placed in museums beside the tarantula (Mygale hentzi), and 

 erroneously labeled as the tarantula's nest. This popular error 

 * * * * is stranger, since the tarantula is usually too large to enter 

 the nest of Cteniza, and itself makes no nest, occupying crevices 

 in the ground or under stones, spinning a small web." Perhaps 

 another record of this "popular error" is in Ausserer's remark, 

 after his description of E. steindachneri (Verh. z.-b. G. Wien, 

 1875, p. 200), which says: "* * * * (Jas Nest, an dessen Grunde 

 das Thier in der Regel sizt, ist circa ein Schuh tief, hat kaum 

 ein Zoll im Durchmesser, und der Deckel passt so genau, dass 

 er mur mit grosster Miihe vom Boden unterschieden werden 

 kann." What Ausserer means by ' ' Deckel " is fully explained on 

 page 1 28 of his paper, where Eurypelma steindachneri and Cteniza 

 californica are cited, with some other species, as examples of the 

 spiders building a " Korkdeckelnest (Cork-covered nest)." 



I am not now ready to believe that any of our Eurypelmas 

 make a trapdoor of any kind. The loose webbing, common at the 

 entrance of the many burrows observed in the Jasper Ridge 

 colonies, is hardly less conspicuous than the open hole. The site 

 of each of these colonies is adobe soil, with much outcroping of 

 rock fragments, in open, grassy spots on the hill-sides. There is 

 no evidence that these spots have ever been cultivated. 



The burrows were- mostly alongside of rocks, commonly bend- 

 ing under the rock if it was a small fragment ; a few burrows were 

 one or two feet distant from the nearest rock. The entrances are 

 sometimes nearly circular, but usually quite irregular in shape, 

 and were more commonly loosely "spun up" than open. The 

 burrows are from 20 to 40 cm. long, very irregular in diameter 

 and form, and exhibited little or no web-lining except near the 

 entrance. The^^ are undoubtedly dug by the spiders. No males 

 were found. 



When disturbed and placed out on the ground, these spiders 

 hold the abdomen up, waving the long spinnerets about. Their 

 movements are very sluggish and little fight is shown when dis- 

 turbed. The elevating of the abdomen may be intended to fright- 

 en away the intruder; but as a fine mesh of silk is spun from the 

 active spinnerets as the spider slowly walks along, the real pur- 

 pose of the action may be to ensnare or discommode an attacking 

 "tarantula wasp" (Pepsis), their worst enemy. Upon continued 

 interference, the abdomen is lowered, the fourth pair of legs raised 

 and their metatarsi rubbed against the posterior portion of the 



