in these northern parts of Europe ; the curious trap-door nests, 

 so popular in all works upon insect-architecture, belong to two 

 other genera — Nemesia and Cteniza — possessing numerous repre- 

 sentatives in the South of Europe. 



The present spider forms a silken tube in a deep cylindrical 

 hole in the earth, of its own excavation, and generally near the 

 projecting ledgo of a grass-grown or heathy bank. The upper 

 end of the tube, to the length of two inches, of ten hangs over loosely 

 on the surface, but sometimes it is erect among the herbage, and 

 has an inflated appearance ; this last is generally a sure sign 

 that the owner is at home. No aperture is discernible ; this may 

 be either from the extremity possessing a kind of elasticity by 

 which the mouth of the tube closes of its own accord, after the 

 entrance or exit of the inhabitant ; or perhaps the mouth is 

 secured by the spider after entering the tube, and spinning itself up 

 in the same way that the tube is formed ; this closing operation 

 would take but a few minutes, judging at least from the effects 

 I have observed of a very few moments' use of their spinners in 

 confinement. 



Monsieur Eugene Simon (of Paris) considers that the food of 

 this spider (which is abundant in France) consists mainly, if not 

 wholly, of earthwo/ms ; nests, however, of the female, found in 

 tolerable plenty near Ventnor, in the Isle of Wight, contained a 

 considerable quantity of the shells, and other remains, of beetles 

 and earwigs. Although found in other, and widely distant, parts 

 of England, Atypus piceus must be considered a rare and local 

 spider. Since writing the above I have discovered a strong 

 colony of this spider under a heathy ledge on Bloxworth Heath. 



The male measures about one-third of an inch in length ; its 

 falces and cephalo -thorax are deep black-brown ; the logs and 

 palpi dark brown, the former paler at their extremities; the 

 abdomen is dark brown, with a large, nearly black, oblong-oval 

 coriaceous patch at tho fore-part of the upper side. The female 

 measures half an inch or more in length, and has the cephalo- 

 thorax and falces of a brownish olive, and tho abdomen of a 

 somewhat purplish brown colour. 



