Mr. J. O. Westvvood's Observations, ^c. 171 



of the most interesting communications hitherto published in our 

 Transactions: (See the preceding Arts. XXI II. and XXIV.) Mr. 

 Shipster has also exhibited, at a former meeting of this Society, a 

 nest received by him from New Holland, remarkable for having the 

 trap-door of the orifice scarcely more than semicircular.* Another 

 nest from New Granada, with a circular trap-door, has recently 

 been figured by M. Audouin, in the " Annales des Sciences 

 Naturelles." As the architect of this nest was not observed, it 

 is imposible to say whether it was the trap-door spider, the his- 

 tory of which has been detailed to us by our excellent member, 

 W. Sells, Esq., whose personal knowledge of the subject has 

 enabled him to give to his details an interest, which those whose 

 descriptions are founded only upon preserved specimens can 

 never hope to attain. This insect is an inhabitant of Jamaica, 

 and apparently of other parts of the new world, and was first 

 described by Brown, in his " History of Jamaica" (p. 420, 

 No. 2, pi. 44, fig. 3), and has been referred to the genus Mygale, 

 without the expression of any doubt by Latreille, as well as by 

 Olivier and others, including Walckenaer, who places it at the 

 head of his section Les digitigrades mineuses, or the genus Cteniza. 

 The last named authors had evidently, however, never seen the 

 insect in nature, and Latreille had only seen a specimen of it 

 casually in the collection of the Linnsean Society of London. 



The account given of it by Brown is very short, being as fol- 

 lows : " Tarantula 2. Fusca major suhhirsuta, sub terram nidulans. 

 The black Tarantula. This sort is represented of the natural 

 size, as well as its nest and both its valves, which are so well con- 

 trived, and so strongly connected, that whenever they are forced 

 open, the native elasticity of the ligaments that fix them restore 

 'em immediately to their usual position. It is most frequently 

 in the loose rocky soils, and nestles under ground. "f Brown's 

 figures correspond very well with the spiders brought home by 

 Mr. Sells, so that we should consider his insects as the same as 

 that described by the former. This is the more necessary to be 

 decided, because Brown's figure of the two valves at the orifice 



* I\Ir. Bennett has shoitly described the nest of a species of trap-door spider 

 frequently observed about the plains in Kew South Wales ; he however gives no 

 description of the insect by which it is made (Wanderings in New South Wales, 

 vol. i. p. 328, quoted in Entomol. iMag. vol. iii. p. 215). 



t Brown's figure represents the regular trap-door partly opened, having a larger 

 and looser flap attached to its base at the hinge above, and falling backwards ; 

 and a specimen of the nest in the Linnaean Society's collection is furnished with 

 a short lax membranous appendage on the outside of the trap-door immediately 

 behind the hinge. 



