STRENUOUS RESISTANCE 



its edge into a wide flange. The other sort of door is thick 

 and heavy, being built up of a number of layers of earth 

 and silk. It is beautifully bevelled around the edge, and 

 fits tightly into the mouth of the tube, which is similarly 

 bevelled to receive it just as a cork fits into the neck of a 

 wide-mouthed bottle; hence this kind of nest is known as 

 the " cork " type. We need not be surprised that the spider 

 takes care to have a well-fitting door; it is an important 

 matter, for there are certain minute hymenopterous insects 

 which lay their eggs inside the eggs of spiders whenever 

 they get a chance of doing so, and these intrusive little 

 creatures must be kept out of the nest at all costs. All the 

 same, the perfection of workmanship with which the cork 

 doors are constructed is amazing; when closed, they are 

 exactly flush with the surface of the ground; they fit so 

 neatly that they are quite difficult to detect, and so tightly 

 that they resist opening even when the spider is away; 

 while they are so substantially constructed that collectors'* 

 specimens have been opened and shut hundreds of times 

 without being materially damaged. It is on the cork doors 

 that we find the larger mosses growing, the wafer nests being 

 usually disguised with fragments of dead vegetation. 



When at home, some spiders resist any attempt at forcing 

 an entrance into their dwellings with all their might. All 

 the cork-nest spiders offer resistance, and though it is not 

 very easy to observe exactly what is going on inside a nest, 

 Mr. Moggridge, after many attempts, succeeded in doing so. 

 He forcibly raised the lid of a cork nest a fraction of an 

 inch only just enough to enable him to peer inside through 

 the cranny. He then observed the spider hanging on to the 

 lid with its fangs and all its claws driven into the silk lining 

 on the under surface, its head being turned away from the 

 hinge, and its body jammed across the tube. The resistance 



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