40 REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW ARANEIDEA. [Feb. 5, 
“ The spiders are occasionally found, even in the daytime, watch- 
ing at the mouths of their holes, but they prey on insects, I sus- 
pect, chiefly at night. At least a few burrows which I marked 
and visited about 10 p.m. had, in nearly every instance, their tenants 
sitting at the mouth, with the door more or less open, apparently on 
the watch for unwary insects passing by. In one case the door was 
elevated about 60°, the others not so much. When disturbed in her 
watch the spider slips quickly down the hole, and the door closes 
after her. If the door is now attempted to be lifted by the point of 
a penknife, the spider will hold it down with very considerable 
force, and can be plainly felt struggling to prevent its forcible 
opening. If the spider is not at the mouth of her hole, it is easy to 
ascertain if she is at home by scratching the outside of the door, 
when, if present, she will always rush up the burrow, and try to the 
best of her ability to hold down the door. The doors are all con- 
structed on the same general plan, but they vary slightly in size and 
thickness. The following are the mean dimensions of five doors 
taken at random, the measurements, as before, being given in eighths 
of an inch and decimal parts thereof: 
“Breadth of hinge qOint bee fue ojos d= ion orciniszeinng tena aeae 
Thickness of door at the forward end............ 2°04 
Transverse diameter of door...... .. nid sigh speeded 
Diameter of door from hinge to forward end ...... 5°14 
“ We may thus say that an average door is a square of five eighths 
of an inch, and with a thickness at its forward or rounded end of a 
quarter of an inch. The thickness at the hinge-end is about one 
sixteenth of an inch, rather less if anything. 
“The length of the burrow from the mouth to the bottom may be 
taken as seven inches. I measared the burrows accurately, the 
longest was 73 inches, and the shortest was 6 inches; the mean of 
the ten holes was 63 inches. The burrows are cylindrical, and 
usually nearly straight, with a slight incline from the vertical towards 
the side on which the hinge is placed. They are lined throughout, 
the lining being thicker near the mouth and at the bottom, the two 
places where, I suppose, the spider usually sits. The diameter of 
the burrow remains nearly uniform throughout, at five eighths of an 
inch, with a very slight enlargement at the bottom. I have never 
found a burrow with an elbow or decided turn in it, or with a 
branch. The burrow is always, so far as my experience goes, a 
simple and nearly straight hole.” 
“Pyawbwe, Upper Burmah, 
“January 7, 1888.” 
The planting (as it were) of the lids of the nests with lichens, 
causing them to resemble most exactly the surrounding surface, is 
similar to that observed by the late Mr. Moggridge in respect of the 
Nemesias of the Riviera, and is indeed a very remarkable habit ; the 
edges of the door are in the case of the present species furnished 
also with bits of grass resembling those growing around the nests. 
