INSECTS. 



109 



NOTE. Bates, the naturalist, found a tarantula eating a finch, 

 while near at hand was another finch entangled in a dense white web 

 that was stretched across a hole in a tree. The author once found 

 one, the only living creature, upon a dismantled wreck floating in the 

 Gulf Stream off the northwestern coast of Cuba. When placed in a 

 saucer, its legs extended beyond the edges. Some of this genus are 

 trap-door spiders. 



Trap -door Spiders. The spiders of the genus 

 Cteniza and Nemesia are remarkable for their nest-building 

 habits. The burrows differ greatly in different species. 

 Generally they are cylindrical shafts sunk into the ground, 

 lined with silk, and covered by a trap-door with a silken 

 hinge, that fits so closely that the opening is never sus- 

 pected from without. Some plant mosses, etc., upon their 

 doors to mislead enemies, and employ many devices. 



NOTE. On the Island of Timos a Cteniza comes out at night, fast- 

 ens the trap-door open by threads of silk, and spins a web about six 

 inches long. In the morn- 

 ing it is taken down, the 

 trap closed, and every ves- 

 tige of the nocturnal net 

 removed. 



The Garden 

 Spiders construct 

 rich geometrical webs 

 (Fig. 130), so deli- 

 cately arranged that 

 the slightest touch is 

 noticed by the in- 

 mate. The spinner- 

 ets (Fig. 126) are 

 generally four or six 



projections pierced F ' G ' . I 3-7 Web f N J phila P lumi ^ in * 



. wire ring reduced^ from a photograph, 



with numberless (After Wilder.) 

 holes, through which 



a glutinous secretion is drawn that, upon exposure to the 



