SPIDERS. 



Ill 



riN w. 



close the main tube. In these nests the spiders live most of the time, coming out at 

 night, and some species in the daytime, to catch insects, which they carry into the 

 tube, and eat. 



Moggridge once took a Cteniza califomica out of her nest and put her on a pot of 

 earth, and the next morning had the good luck to see her at work digging. She loos- 

 ened the earth with her mandibles, and took it in little lumps with the mandibles and 

 maxillae, and carried it away piece by piece. It took her an hour to dig a hollow as 

 large as half a walnut. He saw the making of the door twice by other species. Once 

 he dug a hole for a spider in some earth, and the next day found her in it and the top 

 covered by a little web, on which were scattered bits of earth and leaves, which had 

 evidently been put there by the spider. The second night enough dirt and silk were 

 added to make the door of the usual thickness, but the spider never finished it so that 

 it would open properly on its hinge. Another time Moggridge saw at the mouth of a 

 very small hole a spider at work making a door. She spun a few threads across the 

 hole, then gathered up with her fron1>legs and palpi an armful of dirt, and laid it on 

 top of the threads. She then got under the pile, ihto the tube ; but the motions of the 

 dirt showed that she was still at work on it, and next morning the under-side had been 

 thickly covered with web, and the whole separated from the mouth of the tube except 

 at one side, where the usual hinge was left. The new door was at first soft, but in two 

 or three days hardened, and appeared exactly like an old door. 



These spiders are accustomed to put on the door moss like that which grows around 

 it, and so conceal the door from sight ; but when Mr. Moggridge took away the moss, 

 and dug up the ground ai-ound a hole, 

 and then destroyed the cover, the '' '^>''^' ' " - ' '■ 

 spider made a new one, and brought 



moss from a distance to put on it, 



thereby making it the most conspicu- "-"*" 



ous thing in the neighborhood. 



There is one spider, Argyroneta 



aquatica, that makes a bag of silk on 



water-plants, and lives in it under 



water, as in a diving-bell, the opening 



being below, so that the air cannot 



escape. Mr. Bell describes the filling 



of these nests with air by the spider. 



After the nest had been made as 



large as half an acorn, she went to 



the surface and returned fourteen 



times successively, and each time 



brought down a bubble of air, which 



she let escape into the nest. The 



bubble was held by the spinnerets 



and two hind-feet, which were crossed 



over them ; and the method of catch- 

 ing it was the following : The spider 



climbed up on threads or plants nearly to the sui'face, and put the end of the abdomen 



out of water for an instant, and then jerked it under, at the same time crossing the 



hind-legs quickly over it. She then walked down the plants to her nest, opened her 





Fig. 157. — Argyoneta aquatica, water-spider, natural size. 



