396 General Notes. [ May, 
On Some New TuBE-CoNSTRUCTING SPIDERS.—While wandering 
on a bright October day in search of spiders, over the hills on 
the Virginian shore of the Potomac, near the Aqueduct bridge, I 
noticed on a grassy place at the border of a pine wood, several 
small, nest-like structures with a round hole in the center, and 
was at once aware that I had at last before me the so-long looked 
for home of a certain ground spider or Lycosa. 
These little nests were about 2 
cm. high, composed of bits of grass, 
little sticks of wood, ‘pine leaves 
and rootlets, perfectly round and 
made in very much the same way 
as an ordinary bird’s nest, and 0 
much the same form (Fig. 1). The 
nest inside was cylindrical and 
about 2 cm, in diameter. 
Removing carefully the little nest, 
I dug open the shaft and found it 
to be in some instances 10, in others 
_r 12 cm, deep, perfectly round, 
Fic. 1.—Nest of 7arentula nidifee smooth, perpendicular and without 
ner Coe any web lining. But the nest was 
) 
stormy winter, for I found several pretty well preserved ones 
spring. 
At the bottom of this shaft there laid in an unconscious or tor 
pid condition, a large dark- 
brown spider (Fig. 2) in a sem 
erect position. Pulling the 
spider out with my forceps, It 
awoke, made some movemen 
and laid down again. I found 
five additional specimens, and 
the nests, as well as the s afts, 
were all constructed on the 
same plan. In only one I 
stance did I find the bottom 
Fic. 2.— Tarentula nidifex 9 (Marx del.). part somewhat enlarged. 
Not far away from the place where the above nests occurred) 
but upon a barren clay ravine, where the rain had washed away 
all vegetation, I found an apparently newly built structure, which 
differed from the former ones in the kind of the material used ae" 
its construction, for it was built of clay, little stones and few an 
