1 lO 



through the door, seize its prey and return to its tower! It seems more 

 reasonable when we consider that Nidivalvata viarxii (see food habits of 

 this species,) will nightly open its doors, remain out of sight, watch for 

 passing insects, and rush out and seize them. The tube was about 

 8cm. in length, and there was only a very shallow excavation in the clay 

 soil. The door is of the "wafer type", and was fastened down by silk, 

 probably in the fall when the spider prepared for hibernating.^ 



In the evening I placed the spider in a bottle of earth. During the 

 night it burrowed into the soil and made a rude door, which appeared 

 more like a flap hung from one side of the mouth of the tube. On the 

 evening of Mar. 7, I removed a portion of the soil and placed in a por- 

 tion of clay intermixed with loam, scattering over this a few bits of moss. 

 I did not see the spider make the burrow, but next day saw it make two- 

 thirds of a door, when I put an end to operations on that nest. The 

 door was made practically in the same manner as that by /''. canlivurus. 

 but was a wafer door. 



From the appearance of the tube and the soil about it in both of the 

 nests made in captivity, I felt sure this spider did not dig the_ hole in 

 \ht normal way. Accordingl)-, Mar. 8, I prepared a jar of wet clay. 

 Up to II, p. m. the spider had not begun work, but in the morning the 

 work had not progressed too far for me to observe it. The spider begin.s 

 the burrow in a manner similar to that practiced by Nidivalvata Marxii 

 by pressing the earth aside from a central point with its anterior legs, 

 using also its mandibles, but it is much slower in its movements than 



^ Mr. Moggridge says in Harvest Anis and Trap door Spiders, Supplement, 

 p. 236. "I have on very few occasions, found the doors of a wafer or cork nest spun 

 up during the winter at Mentone, and on digging have discovered the spider ahve, 

 though partially torpid, inside; but this I think is quite an exceptional event. I 

 should like to know, however, whether this becomes the rule in the ca.-c of the ne>is 

 of those trap-door spiders which inhabit climates less favored than that of Mentone." 

 He also speaks of a Lycosa that is said to close her nest in Canes in winter. I.atreiHe, 

 in Mem. See. Hist. Nat. Paris, (an VII, de la Kepubique) p. 124, Says, "L'araignee 

 tarentule ferme aussi son habitation, mais cet opercule n'est pas mobile, et n'est con 

 struit que pour I'hiver." I have on several occasions found that P. caribivoi'orts, 

 after eating one or two beetles, fastens down the lid with silk. Nidivalvata marxii. 1 

 have found fastens the doors at times (See Amer. Nat. Vol. XX, p. 592.) 



O, P. Cambridge, in Annals of Nat. Hist. 1878, 5th series, Vol. I, p. 107, says 

 that in all cases that came under his notice the upper extremity of the nest of Atypus 

 piceus was without any perceptible orifice. He finally came to the conclusion thai 

 the spider gnawed its way out and then closed it with fresh threads again. These ex- 

 amples seem to indicate that spiders will very frequently at least fasten the doors to 

 their nests during a period of rest, when inactive and more liable to be injured, when 

 having had sufficient food, and perhaps sometimes at regular periods when not en- 

 gaged in watching for food. It seems reasonable to suppose that in climates where 

 the spiders are in a torpid state they would fasten their doors during this period. 



