COCOON LIFE AND BABYHOOD. 247 



The inner intermediate eyes were large and of a reddish brown. The 

 first pair of legs were longer than the fourth pair. 1 



It is a suggestive fact in the natural history of these immense repre- 

 sentatives of a race so destructive to insect life to find them the victims 

 of such puny creatures as parasitic Ichneumon flies and Cynips, and to 

 see their young devoured in multitudes as a delicate morsel by little 

 red ants. It is thus that Dame Nature knows how to keep an equilib- 

 rium in the thronging life of the insect world, and, moreover, to bring 

 it about by what seems an apt and admirable stroke of justice well in 

 accordance with "the eternal fitness of things." 



XIV. 



Mr. Moggridge was fortunate enough to see the female of Nemesia me- 

 redionalis constructing a trapdoor in captivity, after having been placed in 

 a flower pot full of earth, in which a cylindrical hole had been 

 a mg a ma( j e j n or( j er ^ o forward the spider's operations. She quickly 

 ' disappeared into this hole, and during the night following made 

 a thin web over the aperture, into which she wove any materials that came 

 to hand. At this stage the trapdoor resembled a rudely constructed hori- 

 zontal orbweb, attached by two or three threads to the earth at the mouth 

 of the hole. In this web were caught bits of earth, moss, leaves, etc., 

 which the spider had thrown into it from above. On the second night 

 the door was nearly the normal texture and thickness, but in no case would 

 it open completely. Mr. Moggridge believed that when a door is fastened, 

 the few threads which serve as supports and connect it with the earth on 

 either side, are severed. 



Young Trapdoor spiders, both of the cork and wafer kind, when taken 

 from the nest of the mother, will make their own perfect little dwelling 

 in captivity, and Moggridge observed them construct tube and door within 

 fifteen hours. This may be favorably compared with the work of the adult 

 Cteniza moggridgii, which the same observer saw make a perfect tube and 

 furnish it with a movable door in a single night when confined under 

 gauze or moist earth. 2 



The same author has enabled us to decide that the young Nemesia 

 proceeds in precisely the same manner as the adult when it builds a nest. 

 While engaged at night in sketching, he detected something mov- 

 * n a ^ ^ e mou th f a tiny hole just large enough to admit a 

 quill pen, in a mass of earth near where he sat. The lamplight 

 fell full upon it, and he soon saw that the moving object was a very small 

 spider, which was at work in the mouth of its tube. The opening of the 

 tube was completely uncovered, and it soon became apparent that the little 

 aranead was intent upon remedying this deficiency. After a few threads 



1 Walckenaer, Apteres, Vol. I., pages 218, 219. 2 Trapdoor Spiders, Supplement, page 243. 



