ORDER PULMOYARLE. 
399 
the trace of them is often lost. They construct at the entrance, 
with clay and silk, a moveable cover, fixed by a hinge, and 
which, in consequence of its form, perfectly adapted to the 
aperture, of its inclination, of its natural weight, and of the 
superior situation of the hinge, closes of itself, and in the most 
exact maimer, the entrance of the habitation, and thus forms 
a trap, which it is difficult to distinguish from the surrounding- 
soil. Its interior face is clothed with a silken layer, to which 
the animal hooks itself, to draw’ to it this door, and hinder it 
from being opened. If it is a little open, w’e may be sure the 
spider is in its retreat. When it is discovered, by a fissure 
made in the conduit, in front of its issue, it remains stupefied, 
and suffers itself to be taken wdtliout resistance. A silken 
tunnel, or the nest properly so called, invests the interior of 
the gallery. The naturalist just cited is of opinion that the 
males do not excavate in this w r ay. Independently of his 
never having met w ith them except under stones, they appear 
to him to be less favoured by nature with organs proper for 
the execution of such labours. Without pronouncing on this 
point, w T e presume, with him, that our Mygale carminans is 
only the male of the following species. Nevertheless, M. 
Walckenaer has his doubts on this point. 
The female mason-spider (M. cocmentaria , Latr. ; Araignee 
magonne, Sauvag. Hist, de l’Acad. des. Scienc. 1758, p. 2fi ; 
Araignee mineuse, Dortlres Linn. Trans, ii. 17. 8, &c. &c.) 
is about eight lines in length, of a reddish, bordering on 
brown, and more or less deep, wdth the edges of the corslet 
paler. The forceps are blackish, and have, each of them, 
above, near the articulation of the hook, five points, the inter- 
nal one of which is shorter. The abdomen is of a mouse-grey, 
with deeper coloured spots. The first articulation of all the 
tarsi is furnished w’ith small spines ; the hooks of the last 
have a spur at their base, and a double range of sharp 
teeth. The spinnerets project but little. According to M. 
