592 A new Trap-door Spider, > [July, 
one, and much is yet to be learned of their habits in this respect. 
While I had the spider out of her tube I offered her several 
house-flies, holding them by one wing with the forceps near her 
head. The struggles of the fly attracted her attention. - With a 
quick sweep of the palpi and anterior pair of legs she would 
clutch the fly and place it between her powerful mandibles, 
crushing it immediately. 
She held some of these about one minute, but I very much 
doubt her having derived any nourishment from them. One of 
the smaller species of the flies belonging to the genus Tabanus 
was offered her. It seemed only to frighten her, as she could 
not be made to touch it even by being angered, but would turn 
and run away as if in great fear. After returning the spider to 
her nest, Dec. 8, I placed in the jar two ants and a small carabid 
beetle. The ants hid themselves in the earth. Dec. 14 the beetle 
was still unharmed, and I concluded the spider did not come out 
for food. I then lifted the trap door and placed the beetle inside. 
Dec. 16 I found the broken hard parts of the beetle strewn about 
_ just outside the nest. It had been killed, the soft parts eaten by 
ae the spider, and the parts of the skeleton ejected from the nest. 
à Jan. 17, ’86, I placed a half dozen large yellow ants in the jar. 
_ As they attacked her she would catch and crush them, but I did 
‘not see that she ate any of them. : 
Noe Jan. 2,’86, which was almost like a summer day at Chapel 
| Hill, I went into the woods for the purpose of collecting some 
moss. While tearing up a large patch of this at the foot of a 
tree, I discovered a hole which I thought to be the nest of a trap- 
= door spider. I dug down into the tube and found at the bottom 
= a spider belonging to this family. In the afternoon I fou: * sev- 
_ eral nests and one more female spider. Under some stones I 
_ founda male. I placed them in jars of earth containing M055. 
_ One of the females escaped, the other built a nest and made x 
a slanting double door which might be compared to an outside 
-cellar door. Each door is made of moss cemented with silk and 
hung by a semicircular hinge. These the spider will open an | 
_ shut at pleasure, sometimes fastening them together wi 
= of silk. In both of the nests in which I found these 
there were the remains of ants. I had intended to illust i 
describe farther the nests and habits of these found by myse dog 
Eei 
spiders 
rate and 
