Supplement to the New England Spiders. 205 
the body raised, alternately reaching forward the front legs and 
jerking them quickly back until almost near enough to touch the 
female. She then came toward him and struck at him weakly 
with her front legs, but he turned them aside, jumped on her back 
and tried to place his palpus under her. She then attacked him 
in earnest and drove him away, afterward going down in her burrow 
and remaining there, and the male soon wandered away. 
Young an eighth of an inch in length are found in small burrows 
of their own from June to August, and in holes with adult females 
as late as Aug. 10. 
Lycosa nidifex, Marx. American Naturalist, 1881. (Plate VII, 
figures 3 to 3e.) 
In N. E. Lycosidae I have confounded this species with L. prker, 
under the name of mdifex. 
This inland species differs distinctly from Prker and approaches 
L. missourtensis Banks of the South and West. The epigynum and 
palpal organs of these three species are so much alike that they 
cannot be used to distinguish them. In mzdifex the black color of 
the under side of the first leg does not extend inward beyond the 
patella, and the coxe are all light-colored, while in Pyke? the whole 
of the first leg, including the coxa, is black, and in some individuals 
the whole of the second leg. In mdifex the whole upper surface 
of the body is a nearly uniform gray color with indistinct stripes 
on the abdomen, while in Prker the color of both upper and under 
sides is darkest at the head, and gradually lighter backward with 
a distinct pattern on the abdomen. In wdifex the pads on the t#rbia 
and metatarsus are composed of shorter hairs, so that these legs 
look but two thirds as thick as they do in Pyrker. 
L. nidifex usually makes a turret at the opening of its burrow, 
sometimes only a slight ring, but often a tube of sticks or grass 
rising more than its diameter above the surface of the ground. 
Like Pike: the spider sits at the mouth of its burrow with the feet 
turned under and the head high enough to see the surrounding 
country. The burrows are often not more than eight or ten inches 
deep, sometimes curved to avoid stones. The turrets are most 
conspicuous in October and November, after the surrounding grass 
has withered. The burrows remain open all winter, the immature 
spiders lying partly torpid at the bottom. Freshly matured males 
and females are found in May. 
