76 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
without details, confirms all that I had there suggested, and shows that the 
enemy which the Trapdoor spider is most concerned to evade belongs to 
the same remarkable family, if it be not identical with Pepsis formosa, 
Mr. Titus adds that the moss and lichens placed by the Trapdoor spider 
on the outside of its door will keep green through the wet season, and dies 
when the dry time of the year comes. He once saw a nest made 
in a bank of beautiful green moss, the door of which was com- 
pletely covered by the plant. The nest was discovered by the circumstances 
that the moss upon the lid was not quite so large as the surrounding moss, 
and it was only by this that the nest could have been detected. The fact 
showed that the moss had grown since the preparation of the lid, and this 
of course could only have been by the active or permissive agency of the 
spider architect. 
Some observations made by Miss Thompson upon the maternal habits 
of a family of Trapdoor spiders are interesting. ‘The young spiders have 
a pinkish white color when first hatched. The hatching occupied 
a period of about three weeks. A little later the color of the 
spiderlings is described as a silvery amber touched with pink. 
They remained in the nest with the mother, and at times perched upon 
her body and legs, where they looked like shining pink pearls against the 
glossy black. ‘his is the custom of the young of all Citigrades, and, so 
far as is known, of Tunnelweavers. 
Of the cocooning habit of this species Mr. Titus says that the female 
lays her eggs upon the inside of her nest, about three inches aboye the 
bottom thereof. The eggs are fastened to the sides of the bur- 
row with glossy threads. It is thus seen that the cocooning 
habit of Cteniza Californica is precisely like that of the Trapdoor spiders 
of Venezuela, as described by Mr. Eugene Simon.' 
Mimicry. 
Baby 
Spiders. 
Cocoon. 
1A copy of his figure showing the position of the cocoon within the nest will be found 
in Vol. II. of this work, page 140, Fig. 172, the burrow of Psalistops melanophygia. 
