HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 471 



accommodation — I shall select for description only two, 

 both the work of spiders, and alluded to in a former 

 letter, which indeed, with the exception of the inarti- 

 ficial retreats made by the Achetce, Cicindelce^ and per- 

 haps a few others, are the only ones properly belong- 

 ing to it. 



The habitation of one of these {My gale ccementaria^ 

 Latr., Aranea Snuvagesii, Dorthes,) is subterraneous, 

 not a mere shallow cavity, but a tube or gallery up- 

 wards of two feet in length and half an inch broad. 

 This tunnel, so vast compared with the size of the in- 

 sect, it digs by means of its strong jaws in a steep bank 

 of bare clay, so that the rain may readily run off with- 

 out penetrating to its dwelling. Its next operation is 

 to line the whole from top to bottom with a web of fine 

 silk, which serves the double purpose of preventing the 

 earth that composes the walls from falling in, and, by 

 its connexion with the door of the orifice, of giving in- 

 formation to the spider of what is passing above. You 

 doubtless suppose that in saying door I am speaking 

 metaphorically. It could never enter into your con- 

 ception that any animal, much less an insect, could 

 construct any thing really deserving of that name — any 

 thing like our doors, turning upon a hinge, and accu- 

 rately fitted to the frame of the opening which it is in- 

 tended to close. Yet such a door, incredible as it may 

 seem, is actually framed by this spider. It does not in- 

 deed, like us, compose it of wood, but of several coats 

 of dried earth fastened to each other with silk. When 

 finished, its outline is as perfectly circular as if traced 

 with compasses; the inferior surface is convex and 

 smooth, the superior flat and rough, and so like the ad- 



