5024 Linnean Society. 



disposition to indulge it : any theory in contravention of this idea is opposed to all 

 that we know of the natural history of spiders. I would then observe, first, that she 

 has no access to the outer air, the exposed surface where insects, the ordinary food of 

 spiders, are to be found ; secondly, that the web is not glutinous ; and thirdly, that I 

 eannot find a fragment of an insect in any part of either of the tubes, and it seems to 

 me that such fragments must occur if insects were the food of the spider. 



" Not contented with my own search for the remains of insects, I wrote again to 

 Mr. Brown, stating the result, and begging him to investigate further, which he has 

 done, and replies thus : — ' I have never seen any flies or fragments of flies attached 

 to any part of web ; the only thing I can find is a portion of the cast-off skin of the 

 spider herself, and this is in the cocoon or exposed end of the nest : in one of these 

 there is a considerable quantity of their exuviae. With respect to flies or any other 

 insects getting entangled in the web, I do not think it possible, first, because it is not 

 glutinous or adhesive ; and secondly, because it is always covered with grains of sand, 

 which, supposing it had been glutinous originally, effectually prevent the adhesion 

 of any extraneous object.' In answer to my pointed inquiry, whether the spider ever 

 comes out of the tube, Mr. Brown writes : — ' I will not say that the spider never comes 

 out of the nest, or is incapable of opening the extremity for that purpose, but I have 

 never seen one do so, and I have no evidence that such is the case : the spiders in five 

 tubes, which I extracted entire and kept at my lodgings, passed backwards and for- 

 wards, but never came out at either end : the longest of these perfect sacs was eleven 

 inches in length.' I therefore concluded, from the absence of fragments, that 

 the spider does not feed on insects ; and, from the structure of her domicile, that she 

 has no means of obtaining them. Combining this negative evidence with the positive 

 fact, that the spider is strictly subterranean, living in places where worms abound, 

 burrowing to an unknown depth, occurring always in damp situations, and, to crown 

 all, having before us the statement of a most careful and eminently cautious observer, 

 that in one instance he found the spider had eaten a portion of a worm, we may, I 

 think, congratulate Mr. Brown, not only on having restored a most interesting species 

 to the British Fauna, but also on having discovered a singular aberration from the 

 normal economy of the world of spiders. Nevertheless, on communicating this view 

 of the case to Mr. Meade, that eminent arachnologist, with laudable caution, ex- 

 presses himself thus: — ' I cannot help thinking that it was only a fortuitous circum- 

 stance that an earthworm was found in the retreat of the Atypus, though it is quite 

 possible the spider might feed on the worm when it came in its way : many spiders 

 are so voracious, as even to devour one another. My reasons for giving this opinion 

 are, first, that a worm could not readily penetrate through the firm silken walls of the 

 tube, and the one in question may have been met with while the spider was making 

 the excavation : secondly, the Atypus, in common with other mining spiders, and with 

 all those spiders called by Walckenaer, Incluses, shuts itself up in its cell or tube by 

 day, and wanders about in search of prey at night. It never appears to convey any 

 food to its nest : the young when hatched are carried about on the body of the 

 mother, just in the same way as the young of the Lycosa?. I think it most probable 

 that the Atypus closes up with fresh silk every day the aperture through which it 

 enters the sac, and that it makes a fresh hole through which to issue at night. The 

 trap-doors and other contrivances constructed by exotic spiders, answer the purpose 

 of keeping out enemies, in the same, way as the external portion of the sac of the 

 Atypus ; and I believe that all these spiders are erratic in their habits, and none of 



