The Black-Bellied Tarantula 7 



preventing landslip or warping, for maintaining 

 cleanliness and for helping her claws to scale 

 the fortress. 



' I hinted that this outwork of the burrow was 

 not there invariably ; as a matter of fact, I 

 have often come across Tarantulas' holes with- 

 out a trace of it, perhaps because it had been 

 accidentally destroyed by the weather, or 

 because the Lycosa may not always light upon 

 the proper building-materials, or, lastly, because 

 architectural talent is possibly declared only 

 in individuals that have reached the final stage, 

 the period of perfection of their physical and 

 intellectual development. 



' One thing is certain, that I have had numerous 

 opportunities of seeing these shafts, these out- 

 works of the Tarantula's abode ; they remind 

 me, on a larger scale, of the tubes of certain 

 Caddis-worms. The Arachnid had more than 

 one object in view in constructing them : she 

 shelters her retreat from the floods ; she 

 protects it from the fall of foreign bodies which, 

 swept by the wind, might end by obstructing it ; 

 lastly, she uses it as a snare by offering the 

 Flies and other insects whereon she feeds a 



