TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. 115 



TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS. 



In digging their mountain-gardens the negroes 

 often expose the curious subterranean nests of the 

 Trap-door Spider {Cteniza nidulans), many of which 

 are brought to me. This Spider makes its tubular 

 dwelling in soft earth, frequently choosing cultivated 

 ground, on account, doubtless, of this quality ; each 

 nest is cylindrical, or nearly so, from four to ten 

 inches deep, and about one inch in diameter ; the 

 bottom is rounded ; and the top, which is at the 

 surface of the soil, is closed very accurately with a 

 circular lid. They are not all equally finished, some 

 being much more compact, and having the lid more 

 closely fitted than others. Some have irregular 

 bulgings, and ragged laminated ofif-sets on the outer 

 surface ; but all are smooth and silky on the inside. 

 This smoothness, however, does not preclude little 

 irregularities or unevennesses of surface, nor is it 

 glossy ; its appearance rather resembles that of paper 

 which has been wetted and dried ; it is always of a 

 reddish-bufi" hue, but the outside is stained of the 

 colour of the surrounding earth. The mouth of the 

 tube, and the parts near it, are very strong; the walls 

 here often having a thickness of from ^th to |th of 

 an inch ; but the lower parts are much thinner. The 

 lid is continuous with the tube for about a third of its 

 circumference, and this part may be called the hinge, 

 though it presents no structure peculiar to itself; it 

 is simply bent at a right angle, as is manifest if a nest 



