INSECTS. 109 
NotTrE.—Bates, the naturalist, found a tarantula eating a finch, 
while near at hand was another finch entangled in a dense white web 
that was stretched across a hole in a tree. The author once found 
one, the only living creature, upon a dismantled wreck floating in the 
Gulf Stream off the northwestern coast of Cuba. When placed in a 
saucer, its legs extended beyond the edges. Some of this genus are 
trap-door spiders. 
Trap-door Spiders.— The spiders of the genus 
Cteniza and Nemesia are remarkable for their nest-building 
habits. The burrows differ greatly in different species. 
Generally they are cylindrical shafts sunk into the ground, 
lined with silk, and covered by a trap-door with a silken 
hinge, that fits so closely that the opening is never sus- 
pected from without. Some plant mosses, etc., upon their 
doors to mislead enemies, and employ many devices. 
NorTe.—On the Island of Timos a Céeniza comes out at night, fast- 
ens the trap-door open by threads of silk, and spins a web about six 
inches long. In the morn- 
ing it is taken down, the 
trap closed, and every ves- 
tige of the nocturnal net 
removed, 
The Garden 
Spiders construct 
rich geometrical webs 
(Fig. 130), so deli- 
cately arranged that 
the slightest touch is 
noticed by the in- 
mate. The spinner- 
ets (Fig. 126) are 
generally four or six 
projections pierced 
S SW 
Fic. 130.—Web of Nephila plumipes, in a 
: wire ring reduced, from a photograph. 
with numberless (After Wilder.) 
holes, through which 
a glutinous secretion is drawn that, upon exposure to the 
