A VERSATILE FAMILY 



Whether the young spider makes careful observations during 

 the early days spent in the parental home and reproduces its 

 architecture in detail from these mental notes when the time 

 comes to set up house on her own account, or whether she 

 is able to turn out a masterpiece by what we, to cloak our 

 ignorance, conveniently term "blind instinct," and without 

 any previous technical self-education, I cannot say ; but the 

 facts are as stated. 



Some of the trap-door spiders, like the South African 

 Moggridgea, have taken to an arboreal life, and make their 

 homes upon the trunks of trees by first building a silken 

 framework in some natural crevice of the bark and then 

 covering it over with a coating of wood-chips and lichen ; 

 others, such as the Pseudidiops of South America, hollow out 

 their own crevices by cutting away the bark with fangs and 

 mandibles. 



Carpenters, weavers, miners, engineers, and architects, 

 skilled in everything they attempt, the trap-door spiders by 

 their versatility may claim to be the master craftsmen of the 

 animal world. 



