220 
Annals oe the Transvaal Museum. 
We also had some experience of the genus Moggndgea, which belongs 
to a family in which arboreal types abound : we found some of them in the 
ground, some in the crevices of rocks, and others in the bark of trees. It 
will thus be seen that there is hardly a single place where one or another 
species does not occur, and frequently three or four species representing 
different genera may be found side by side. One’s eyesight must be good, 
and if search is to be made in that way alone, it is usually necessary to 
squat down on the ground and study it from close quarters. To the 
unpractised eye nothing unusual will be seen, but when the characters 
of the lids of the different species are known, their discovery becomes simpler. 
Even the most practised eye does not always “ spot ” the lid, and it 
frequently happens that in digging out a nest one brings to light a 
neighbouring abode with the lid so cleverly constructed and adjusted 
that detection was previously practically impossible. It is therefore 
advisable in looking for nests, to scrape the surface soil with a trowel, so 
as to disclose the webbing of the tube or the lid, and subsequent search 
can be made, when their presence is known, should one desire to study the 
complete nests. It is a common occurrence to find quite a cluster of nests 
together, usually a few adult females and the majority immature or juvenile 
specimens. This i ndicates that some localities are more suitable than others, 
a matter which must largely contribute to the welfare and the existence 
of the species concerned. It has been observed, that large bare or partly 
bare patches of ground are the common abode of a number of species, 
particularly when the soil is of a certain reddish clay. In such places 
heavy rains must frequently destroy quite a number, but it is remarkable 
how much inundation some species v 7 ill survive. These bare patches are 
probably chosen because the food is there more accessible than in the 
grass. Stony ground in the open veld is not much favoured, and loose 
sandy soil still less so ; in the first places burrows are not easily made 
and in the second, the sand must interfere with the burrowing by 
constantly falling in. 
The species are all more or less adaptive to the conditions of their 
environment, and we frequently find an individual species making a nest 
different from that of its kind ; but, as a rule, the species are remarkably 
constant in the making of certain types of nests. Some species have the 
habit of disguising the lid, for which purpose the spiders usually choose 
material found in the immediate surroundings. Sometimes a twig is stuck 
upright on the lid, but the commonest disguise is a bunch of short straws 
placed upright or across the lid. Some nests of Galeosoma pilosum have 
been found disguised with pebbles. 
Very little has so far been noted on the food of these spiders ; elytra 
of insects are invariably found in old nests, but are so crushed up as to 
be unrecognizable. In the nests of Stasimopus, small ants were found 
from time to time, and in one case a large green mantis ; in a nest of a 
Galeosoma pilosum, a green caterpillar was found half consumed. 
These spiders appear to have many enemies ; they were never found 
under rocks where there were traces of nocturnal mice ; nor were they 
found under rocks where scorpions or centipedes had taken up their abode. 
In the nests themselves the remains of spiders, and sometimes also their 
