250 



AMERICAN Sl'IDERS AND THEIK SPINNINGWOKK. 



Grecian 

 and 

 Italian 

 Species. 



series had the increase been less than one line in widtli, which was equal 

 to an increase of one-fourth tlie original width of the door. 



We can scarcely venture from such limited premises to draw any precise 

 conclusions. But if we suppose that during the entire course tlie nests 

 increased on an average by about four lines in diameter, and assume that 

 the rate of growtli continues the same, the nest of the infant spider, whose 

 surface door measures scarcely a line across, would still require four years 

 to attain the dimensions of some of the largest double doors, whose surface 

 doors measure ten lines across.^ 



In the nests of several females of Cteniza ariana Walck., on the island 

 of Niros, in the Grecian Archipelago, Mr. Erber found eggs at the bottom 

 of the tube attached by separate threads, and not placed in 

 cocoons. The young spiders when hatched were turned out from 

 the asylum of their mother's nest, and these creatures were 

 found, scarcely two lines long, already established in nests three 

 inches deep and furnished with perfect trajidoors, specimens of 

 which were collected.^ 



Costa states that tlio young of Nemesia meredionalis, observed by him in 

 tlie neighborliood of Naples, remain in the bottom of the maternal tube. 

 »y The mother herself stands 



a^ at the door, holding the 



lid raised by means of the 

 four anterior feet and the 

 palpi, the curved extremi- 

 ties of which she inserts 

 between the rim of the 

 tube and the door. Some- 

 times the limbs do not ap- 

 pear, but the spider loaves 

 only a chink for observa- 

 tion. He also observed 

 the fact tliat the young spiders make perfect little tubes entirely inde- 

 pendent of the maternal nest.^ 



XV. 



Most persons who consider the above facts will cordially join with Mr. 

 Moggridge in thinking that these very small trapdoor nests, built as they 

 are by minute spiders probably not very long hatched from the 

 eggs, must rank among the most marvelous structv;res of the 

 kind with which we are acquainted. That so young and weak a 

 creature should be -able to excavate a tube in the earth many 



Flu. 265. The lr:iiMl<),ii- an. I 

 meredionalis. Natural ; 



(After Moggridge.) 



Marvels 

 of In- 

 stinct. 



' Moggridge, Trapdoor Spiders, jiage 127. 



* Verhand. der k. k. Zooiogisli-botanischer Verein in Wien, Vol. XVIII. (1868), page 905. 



" Costa, Fauna del Regno di Napoli, Aracnidi (]8()1), page 14, tab. i., Figs. 1-4. 



