330 THE SPIDKRS. 



not us long as the double door of the ramified nest, which has 

 to fulfil a double duty, but is rather broader and closer. All 

 the doors are more or less elliptical, this being necessarily 

 the case as they have to close the cylindrical in a somewhat 

 sloping direction. Yet their outlines are occasionally 

 different, according to the differences in the circumferences 

 of the cylinders. 



Moggridge several times found among the N. Eleanora a 

 larger or smaller number of young ones with the mother in 

 the cylinder, while this never chanced with the other species. 

 He never saw the trap-door spiders, which go out hunting 

 at night, out of the nest during the day, although other 

 observers are said to have seen them. 



Erber relates the following (" Verh. d. k. k. Zool. Bot., 

 Gesellsch of Vienna," Bk. XVIII., pp. 905 and 906) of the 

 Cteniza ariana (cover-spider), found in the island of Tinos 

 in the Greek Archipelago, which he observed by moonlight : 

 " The doors opened soon after nine o'clock ; the spiders 

 came out, fastened the open doors by a few threads to the 

 surrounding grass or small stones, each spun a web of about 

 six inches long and half-an-inch high, and went back into 

 their dwellings. I had selected my position so as to be able 

 to watch three spiders at the same time. They soon had 

 some night beetles caught in their webs, and the spiders 

 seized them at once. They sucked out their juices and 

 pulled their dead bodies some feet away from their holes. 

 On the following morning I again visited the place and 

 found that the nets stretched during the night had wholly 

 vanished. The door of the nest of one of the spiders, which 

 I had captured during the night, was standing open, and I 

 could clearly recognise the threads ornamented with dew- 

 drops with which it had been fastened to the ground." 



On the other hand, according to the information sent to Herr 

 Hansard by a friend, there is a trap-door spider in the island 

 of Formosa, which builds nests like those of Cteniza fodiens, 

 and which is generally seen out of its nest during the day, 

 but as soon as anyone goes near it, it darts into its dwelling, 

 shutting the door behind it. According to Lady Parker 

 these spiders are so common in Australia that scarcely any 

 notice is taken of them. They also are outside in the day- 

 time, and run into their nests vrhen frightened. The doors 

 shut so perfectly that they are very difficult to find. 





