life-history of Ati/pus piceus. 419 



No. 3. — A very large tube, in which I found a male as well 

 as a female next morning; the female had been 

 left in the lower part of the tube from which 

 I had not removed the ball of earth usually 

 found at the end, and no doubt the male was 

 just above this when I laid the tube in the 

 box ; however, the pair of them could not get 

 uj:) sufficient wind to "inflate" the aerial 

 jjortion, though both of them were found close 

 to the contraction, leaving the part traversed 

 during the night well distended. 



No. 4. — Another huge female, left in the aerial part, 

 through which she walked before dark, gently 

 distending it as she passed along ; but not 

 any alteration in the subterranean part, 

 which was as fiat as when I left it. 



No. 5.— "Where the spider was confined in about four 

 inches of the middle part, which was dis- 

 tended next morning, the two ends to which 

 she could not obtain entrance were perfectly 

 fl^at.^ 



No. 6. — The spider had traversed and distended the free 

 portion up to where the end of the piece of 

 glass was laid on, but beyond this there were 

 no signs of any "inflation" having taken 

 place. 



The sum total of the above experiments was, that 

 wherever the spider had a free passage, either at the 

 aerial, or subterranean end, or in the middle of the tube, 

 it distended it by simply passing along ; but the parts of 

 the tubes contracted were not altered in any way what- 

 ever, (dl being perfectly flat, just as I kept them on the 

 previous day, and 1 think satisfactory jyroof that the 

 spider does not distend any part other tube by "inflating." 



Should the daj' after rain has fallen be warm and 

 bright, the aerial part nearly always presents a very 

 much distended appearance. I attribute this to nothing 

 else than the power given to the spider enabling it 

 (though only a spulcr) to know when to put its snare 

 (the aerial portion) in such a condition that the flies will 

 alight upon it in ignorance of what it may be, and suffer 

 accordingly. 



There is just one more fact which I noticed, and then 

 I have exhausted my notes and, I am afraid, your 



