Trap-Door Spiders. 93 



Enthusiastic naturalists have allowed spiders to bite them 

 repeatedly without serious results ; but as far as personal ap- 

 plication is concerned I am perfectly willing to depart from 

 scientific methods and take on faith the statement that the 

 poison of a spider is not poisonous. There are noticeable 

 differences between male and female spiders. The male 

 Cteniza is smaller, darker colored, has much smaller abdo- 

 men, longer legs, and his maxillary palpi have one crooked 

 joint, and are armed with spurs or hooks. He is also very 

 much more active. 



I have never been able to find the hiding places of males, 

 and in two years have only obtained two specimens. These 

 were caught by some boys soon alter a severe rain storm. 

 They probably hide away among mustard stalks and under 

 leaves and have no settled homes. As there are few stones 

 and no beds of matted leaves, the male Trap-door spider 

 must be an adept at hiding, especially in the day season. It 

 is said his shyness is due to the cannibal tendencies of the fe- 

 male, who shows her conjugal thrift by eating a husband 

 whenever the larder is empty, or she happens to be in an ill 

 humor. The females are the solitary dwellers in the tube 

 houses. These holes are dug all over the foothills and often 

 on level ground. It is often said that they prefer a certain 

 exposure, I think northerly, but I have found the nests at all 

 heights and all slopes of the hills, and believe they have no 

 preference. All they need is seclusion. They are found by 

 the dozens on many hills, and frequently there are four or 

 five within a few feet of each other. It looks as though the 

 young of one family located as one colony after leaving the 

 parental cellar, and live peacefully. This proximity suggests 

 that unconfined they are not such ferocious cannibals as 

 painted, or that food is abundant. I do not know what the 

 food is. Probably the staple articles are crickets and sow- 

 bugs. That it is plentiful is shown by the plump condition 

 of the spiders w^hen they are dug from the ground. I never 

 found any remains of food in or around the nests. In con- 

 finement they eat flies and crickets and devour each other with 

 great relish, or they will live months without food. It is next 

 to impossible to starve them out of their nests. I have known 

 specimens to shut themselves up by webs and stoically starve 

 to death in nests left on window sills in rooms where they 

 were alone most of the time, and where they could have 

 caught flies by leaving the tube. There is something almost 

 pathetic about this feminine domesticity were it not so ex- 



