ORDER PULMONARTiE. 399 



the trace of them is often lost. They construct at the entrance, 

 with clay and silk, a moveable cover, fixed by a hinge, and 

 which, in consequence of its form, perfectly adapted to the 

 aperture, of its inclination, of its natural weight, and of the 

 superior situation of the hinge, closes of itself, and in the most 

 exact manner, the entrance of the habitation, and thus forms 

 a trap, which it is difficult to distinguish from the surrounding 

 soil. Its interior face is clothed with a silken layer, to which 

 the animal hooks itself, to draw to it this door, and hinder it 

 from being opened. If it is a little open, we may be sure the 

 spider is in its retreat. When it is discovered, by a fissure 

 made in the conduit, in front of its issue, it remains stupefied, 

 and suffers itself to be taken without resistance. A silken 

 tunnel, or the nest properly so called, invests the interior of 

 the gallery. The naturalist just cited is of opinion that the 

 males do not excavate in this way. Independently of his 

 never having met with them except under stones, they appear 

 to him to be less favoured by nature with organs proper for 

 the execution of such labours. Without pronouncing on this 

 point, we presume, with him, that our Mygale carminanfi is 

 only the male of the following species. Nevertheless, M. 

 Walckenaer has his doubts on this point. 



The female mason-spider {M. coementaria, Latr. ; Araignee 

 magonne, Sauvag. Hist, de I'Acad. des, Scienc. 1758, p. 26; 

 Araignee mineuse,J)oYihes Linn. Trans, ii. 17. 8, &c. &c.) 

 is about eight lines in length, of a reddish, bordering on 

 brown, and more or less deep, with the edges of the corslet 

 paler. The forceps are blackish, and have, each of them, 

 above, near the articulation of the hook, five points, the inter- 

 nal one of which is shorter. The abdomen is of a mouse-grey, 

 with deeper coloured spots. The first articulation of all the 

 tarsi is furnished with small spines ; the hooks of the last 

 have a spur at their base, and a double range of sharp 

 teeth. The spinnerets project but little. According to M, 



