naturp: study. 
40 
smeared is used because the silk of this spider and others of its 
class issues from long row's of pores iu tlie underside of finger- 
shaped organs, wdiich are drawn over a surface from side to side, 
and more often while in contact. 
The employment of plUvStic earth in making the door makes the 
fitting of that object perfect; for while it is yet wet it is drawni 
down into the flaring opening of the tunnel, the soft edges yield¬ 
ing where pressure is greatest. When a door is well pulled dowm, 
water may stand over it for several hours wdthout entering the tun¬ 
nel further than to moi.sten the wall and its lining. 
The heavy earthen door, usuall}^ of adobe, witli its stout coating 
of silk, is well svuted to protect the designer from insect foes, but 
iu June or July the spider enters upon a period of inactivity which, 
in the case of those half grown or younger, extends through the 
summer and autumn or until tlie so-called rainy season appears; 
and these young spiders, as an additional safeguard, barricade the 
door by packing wet earth against it from within, completely fill¬ 
ing the upper part of the tunnel. The lower end of the plug is 
made dome-like, smooth, and is coated with silk like that covering 
the rest of the wall. 
The adults do not employ a like means, l)ut the immature spiders 
that are over half grown, and some adults, fasten the door wdth a 
quantity of silk applied to the wall of the tunnel and to the door 
at their line of contact, by which the door is well fastened down. 
The piotection afforded by these means enables the immature 
spider to pass thi'ough its helpless molting stage unmolested, and 
the adult female to febricate her one egg cocoon of the year, and 
attend it, undisturbed. 
The tunnel in which it passes this peculiar existence is, for the 
time, practically air-tight, being made usually in heavy clay, or 
adobe, very hard in summer, and having its smooth wall covered 
completely with a closely woven and firmly adhering coat of fine 
silk. Though much of the soil in which these spiders live cracks 
freely during the rainless summer, the cracks do not rupture the 
wall of the tunnel, which often appears harder than the surround¬ 
ing soil, and may receive some special treatment iu addition to the 
troweling, or smoothing, which the spider gives it. 
The spider’s condition during this time of complete seclusion 
should not be described as lethargic, since it becomes active when 
disturbed, but it comsumes no food whateiA;r for five or six months, 
nor does it partake of water, unless such is gathered in some un¬ 
explained manner from the humid air of the closed cell. 
Remarkable as are the natural conditions under which the spider 
exists throughout the dry season, it is capable of enduring like 
conditions for a much longer time, as shown by actual test iu the 
case of three adults selected for the purpose. These were kept for 
sixteen months unquestionably without food, showing no ill effects 
of treatment. In this in.stance proper food was offered at the end 
of twelve months—the writer not having the heart to continue the 
experiment longer—Imt the offering was declined, as the spiders 
were then eyduring the semi-lethargic condition, out of w'hich they 
emerged in due time, to take food naturally.— C. E. IIutchinso7i, 
in Scientljic American. 
