420 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
the parents may be seen lying about in the passages amidst the 
débris of deceased Beetles. Whether the older Spiders are actu- 
ally killed and devoured by their own progeny, I have not so far 
sufficient evidence to decide. For the present, however, I incline 
to this view, for otherwise I can see no reason why the parents 
should suddenly die off as they appear to do. It is true that at 
this period their food supply almost comes to a standstill, for 
during the winter months Coleoptera cease almost entirely to 
venture out on the wing; but this would affect the young ones 
equally, if not more. Even if this supposition be correct, it is 
difficult to understand how the young subsist through the winter, 
for, so far as I have seen, they do not emerge:at all from the 
nest, and they certainly construct no snares during that season 
for the capture of insects. 
One of the most interesting features in the economy of these 
creatures has yet to be dealt with. In the winter of 1895 I 
examined a number of deserted nests along the Umfali river 
in hopes of finding Coleoptera harbouring therein, and I was 
surprised to find in several instances large balls of grass, wild 
cotton, or even feathers, right in the middle of the nest. I was 
quite at a loss to understand how or why the Spiders should 
accumulate these materials, and I did not find the solution until 
early in the present year. 
It happened thus. On one of my entomological rambles some 
miles from Salisbury, I found myself suddenly enveloped in a 
regular winding-sheet of sticky Spiders’ silk, which was evidently 
that of my friend Stegodyphus. I therefore walked a short dis- 
tance up wind to find whence it came, and soon descried a bush 
on a termite heap, on the summit of which were some hundreds 
of these Spiders, apparently engaged in constructing a new nest, 
and evidently in a great state of perturbation. It at once struck 
me as very curious that these wary creatures should be thus 
exposing themselves wholesale in broad daylight, and I therefore 
proceeded to search for the disturbing element. The bush was 
placed on the side of the termite heap, and was connected by 
several strands of about four feet long with a bush on the top, on 
which was a smaller lot of some fifty Spiders. These were again 
connected with another shrub about six feet away on the far side 
of the ant heap. Here was found the original nest, and there 
