Trap-Door Spiders. 97 



digging. They carry particles of earth by means of the 

 fangs pressed against the body, and when they reach the up- 

 per part of the tube by a quick jerk of a leg, they fillip them 

 far from the nest. Thus the bits of soil are scattered far and 

 wide and a heap is never seen at the mouth of a nest. I have 

 seen them repeatedly throw earth in this way, and often heard 

 it at night strike against the top of jars where they were 

 working. 



In digging holes they use the fangs, and can burrow in very 

 hard soil, As a test, I put one in a cup of clay, tenacious as 

 brick clay, and in a few nights she had dug a hole larger than 

 a walnut, and she still seems disposed to go farther, although 

 her fangs are coated a third of the length with the yellow 

 clay. Then she brings up bits of earth from the inside, moist- 

 ened in some way, and presses them against the side of the 

 tube. Then turning around with her long spinnerets she 

 spreads silk over the underside of the part that she has just 

 stuck on. The spinnerets act like fingers and plaster the silk 

 on carefully and dexterously. It seems all to be done by 

 touch, rather than sight. This she repeats slowly and with 

 great pains, adding bit by bit and smoothing the silk on the 

 underside, and testing her work with her many hands, till the 

 door is completed. Sometimes dawn comes before the labor 

 is done, and then a little half door hangs on its hinges all day 

 over the opening. 



The strength of the door, the holes for holding it down, the 

 tenacity with which the spider pulls on the inside, and the at- 

 titude she takes when she hastens down the tube — all show 

 that she has to contend with shrewd enemies. Probably her 

 most tireless foe is the Tarantula hawk. This is a wasp and 

 there are several species that hunt spiders. The largest one is 

 a gorgeous creature with red win-gs and bluish or greenish 

 metallic-colored body. 



Late in the afternoon when the spiders begin cautiously 

 to open their doors these wasps are seen flying low and in- 

 tently examining every hole and crevice in the ground. They 

 fly into the squirrel burrows and walk all over them, with their 

 bodies jerking in an impertinent and irritating manner, as they 

 peer into the upper stories of these tenement houses. From 

 this it seems that spiders must be added as attic lodgers in 

 these communal dwellings ; and surely with this addition, and 

 the wasps as callers, there must be a Box and Cox arrange- 

 ment as to hours, to prevent unpleasant encounters in the 

 hallways. 



