40 REV. O. p. CAMBRIDGE ON NEW ARANEIDEA. [Feb. 5, 



" The spiders are occasionally founil, 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 poiut 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 shghtly 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-joint 5'12 



Thickness of door at t\ie forward end 2*04 



Transverse diameter of door 5' 12 



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 maybe 

 taken as seven inches. I measured the burrows accurately, the 

 longest was 7f inches, and the shortest was 65 inches ; the mean of 

 the ten holes was 6f 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?, 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. 



