sumer AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
that she was in conflict with a power beyond that which controls ordinary 
misfortunes, and which therefore it was quite useless to further oppose? 
Another experiment with interesting results was the fastening of the 
trapdoor with a pin or peg into the adjacent soil, so as to prevent exit 
therefrom. Invariably when this was done in the evening, a little 
side branch was excavated over night, with an opening at the 
nearest point to the original mouth of the tube, and a new door 
hung upon it. It is possible that some of the various nests, first described 
by Mr. Moggridge! as branched nests, may have been due to accidental 
stoppage of doors. It has been supposed that spiders created these branches 
as a refuge from enemies, or perhaps from aggressions of the elements. 
Miss Thomson’s record would indicate that the branch tube is simply a 
natural effort of the spider to provide an exit from her burrow whenever 
the ordinary mode of departure has been prevented. The curious thing 
about it, perhaps, is that the inmate did not attempt to burrow out the 
obstructed door, instead of taking the roundabout and more laborious course 
of making for herself a side exit. What could have caused this peculi- 
arity of behavior? Can we account for it by the general suspicious tem- 
per which characterizes spiders, and many other animals, when brought in 
contact with a new experience? 
Miss Thomson attribufes to Cteniza californica the secretive tendency 
which naturalists have observed in other Trapdoor spiders. She conceals 
her abode from observation by causing it to mimic the adjacent 
“site. The door corresponds so closely to the character of the 
surrounding surface that it is difficult to discover it. If the bank 
is bare the top of the door is also bare; if the bank is covered with lichens, 
the spider cuts a crop of minute lichens and glues them with nice judg- 
ment to the outside of her door, thus disguising the entrance. 
When one nest is discovered it is comparatively easy to discover two, 
as they are almost always in pairs, and many times so close that their lids 
touch when open. The observer does not state whether these contiguous 
burrows are occupied by the different sexes, and it would be interesting to 
know the facts in regard to this. 
When leaving her burrow Cteniza simply allows the door to drop of 
its own weight. When returning she scampers off at a smart pace for 
her dwelling, and apparently lifts up the door: with the fangs of her 
mandibles, and as she backs down the burrow allows the trap to fall be- 
hind her. 
After the hatching of the eggs from seventy-five to a hundred black- 
and-green spiderlings will be found occupying the maternal nest. When 
these are a few weeks old they leave the native burrow, and begin to exca- 
vate in sunny places minute tubes of their own. Often a dozen such 
Branch- 
ing Nests. 
1 Harvesting Ants and Trapdoor Spiders. 
Oe 
