Arachnida. 5107 



I have kept these animals for some weeks in a glass vessel ; and 

 though at first they greedily devoured all the worms put with them, 

 yet now, owing, I suppose, to the long confinement, they refuse ihem. 

 On a future occasion I will communicate further on this subject. 



Thomas Tapping. 



9, Inner Temple Lane, Temple, 



Note on Atypus Sulzeri. — I had no intention of writing anything more about the 

 spicier; but, seeing a note on Atypus Sulzeri in the ' Zoologist,' I send the following 

 remarks. In a note on Atypus Sulzeri, the writer, Captain Hadfield, supposes this 

 spider to "break through the walls of its residence each time it captures a worm." 

 Now, I mentioned the occurrence of a worm having thrust its head through the nest 

 in a solitary instance, as indicating the kind of food which might occasionally fall to 

 the lot of the spider, and not, as a settled point, to be the only food which she obtains. 

 The worm which had thus obtruded itself was a very slender kind, about 2£ inches in 

 length, and I have no doubt that its head was very pointed, and therefore the crea- 

 ture would find no difficulty in piercing the "closely woven" sides of the silken tube; 

 nor in doing so would it follow that a particle of sand was carried in to "soil the white 

 carpet-like lining ;" so that there would be no fragments to " sweep up," nor would 

 any repairs be required, as not a thread, in my opinion, would be broken. I think in 

 one of my notes the probability of the spider having hybernated was suggested, but 

 accompanied with a doubt of that being the case at so early a period. Now, if the 

 closed state of the nests is a proof of the spider having taken up winter quarters, we 

 may hope, at other periods of the year, to discover a permanent opening, I should 

 think, beneath the exposed end of the nest, and not at the lower extremity, or at the 

 sides ; for in that case she would have to make a ladder of the long tube to climb up 

 by, which seems to me not a likely mode of procedure. It was not supposed that the 

 history of A. Sulzeri was yet completed, especially as respects its food and mode of 

 capturing it, as to whether she remains quietly at home or quits her nest in search of 

 it; if the latter, then I say the carcases of the slain are left by the way, if not wholly 

 consumed, for most certainly no remains have yet been discovered in the nest. 

 These nests were found in October. Now, if the spider was then hibernating, at the 

 time when many insects were still abundant, does it not prove that its peculiar food 

 was no longer to be found without ? and yet have we not seen that she may even, 

 when thus shut in, meet with an occasional supply, for there can be no doubt that a 

 portion of the worm had been eaten? I would just ask, if this long tubular nest is 

 constructed solely as a dwelling for herself and young, forty of whom came forlh from 

 one of the broken nests after it was taken to my lodgings. No doubt a " dark lan- 

 tern" might throw some light upon the question of whether this spider is a night 

 prowler, and likewise in detecting the whereabouts of the males, as also of their kind 

 of food. — Joshua Brown; Bartonbury, Cirencester, April 12, 1856. 



The Small Spider of the Origanum. — Those who have visited the Hilly Field in 

 autumn and spring, and have been sweeping or gathering the heads of the marjoram 



