Psyche 



[April 



markings of the back are partly outlined with orange yellow hairs. 

 The under side has the same light gray color with black markings 

 like those of the female. 



This species is longer legged in both sexes than L. pikei. The 

 cephalothorax of a female and of a large male measures 9 mm. 

 Leg I of female 24 mm. and Leg I of male 27 mm. 



L. nidifex digs its holes in open fields, often through sod several 

 inches thick and covered with growing grass and other low plants. 

 It is most abundant in sandy regions but sometimes digs in hard 

 gravel. It makes usually a so-called "turret" around the mouth 



Fig. 5. Mouth of burrow of L. nidifex surrounded by pieces of decayed 

 wood, Waltham, Mass. 



of its hole, sometimes a low ring of straw or chips attached to the 

 edge of the lining of the burrow and sometimes rising an inch or 

 more above the ground and covered with dead leaves, straw, 

 chips or whatever loose material may be at hand. Figs. 5 and 6. The 

 spider watches for insects sitting in the top of the turret with the 

 head above the edge and the feet turned under the thorax. Fig. 3. 

 Unlike the other species of this group, nidifex matures in the 

 spring and freshly molted males and females may be found in 

 Massachusetts from the tenth to twentieth of May. A half- 

 grown male taken from its hole near Albany, N. Y., on May 16 

 matured and molted Mav 27. 



