Ce 5 a eee es eS 
a PR erie ac ge ee a 
_ durable tube than the loose soil in which I saw the first nest 
black earth. This was wetted, and pieces of moss strewn over 
ee Surface. She tried several times to take up pellets of the — 
1886, ] A new Trap-door Spider. 589 
door of the nest was closed, I prepared a glass test tube, 17™™ in 
diameter, by placing 4°™ from the mouth a cork bottom, so that 
the spider might have something on which to stand while making 
the door. This, with the spider in it, I placed in the glass jar 
and surrounded it with earth to darken the walls, hoping thus, 
because of the firm smooth surface of the tube, she would not 
line it with silk, and by lifting the tube from the soil I could ob- 
Serve the position of the spider as it held down its door. The 
experiment was a decided success. 
This was prepared at eleven o'clock on the night of Dec. 27 
'85. Pieces of moss were strewn about the tube. By morning a 
perfectly fitting door, beautifully covered with moss, had been 
constructed (Plate xxiv, Fig. 3). About this time many visitors 
came to see the spider, and in pulling at the door to show how 
persistently she would resist its being opened, the hinge became, 
loosened and the door was pulled down upon her. She held on 
to the door with such tenacity that I pulled it into bits in my 
efforts to remove it from her grasp. It was removed Dec. 30, 
85, and on the following night she built another as neatly as the 
first. The hinge to this became loosened and the door moved 
down about 5™™ from the mouth of the tube. Here she strength- 
ened the hinge by Spinning a broad piece of silk, the width of the 
hinge, from the door down on to the wall of the tube. Several 
times in endeavoring to open the door I tore pieces from its edge, 
and in every instance the spider repaired it. Finally, when I 
Wished to remove her from the tube I was obliged to push up on ; 
the cork bottom, and in this way crowd her out through the door. = 
Akter this was done it was with some difficulty that she freed her 
Posterior feet from the silk bag which she had constructed at the 
ottom, so firmly did she hold on. a fa 
I have this yet to add. Ina note I have mentioned the wan- 
dering of the spider about in a jar of freshly prepared earth, Jan. 
16. For three days she has been restless, and though several - 
attempts have been made to dig a tube she had failed. I came to 
°r satisfactorily. Wishing to have soil which would make a more 
, I used a large proportion of fine plastering sand mixed with 
