1028 Marvels of the Universe 
most wonderful lid nearly a quarter of an inch thick with bevelled edge fitting exactly to the 
mouth of the nest. 
Though the nests of the Trap-door Spiders differ so much in appearance, the Spiders are 
very much alike. On page 1031 is shown our indigenous species. The first point to strike the 
observer is the enormous muscular development of its jaws and limbs, and if further proof be desired 
the Spider will soon give it should the finger be placed too near. A slight touch rouses the 
apparently sleepy Spider, and in a moment the huge jaws are raised and the long fangs driven 
deep into the flesh, causing blood to flow freely. 
The male is of much lighter build than the female, with long limbs fitted for climbing over rough 
Photo by] [Tickner Edwardes. 
COTTAGE RUINS WITH RECESSES FOR BEE-HIVES. 
Down to the seventeenth century sugar was practically unknown as an article of diet except to the very wealthiest classes. 
The mass of the people depended on the honey-bee for the whole of their sweet-food. Care was taken of the hives, and the 
skeps were frequently placed in recesses in the walls of the homestead for warmth and shelter and protection from robbers. 
The ruins shown probably date back four hundred years. 
ground, among the roots of heather, etc., where the nests are generally found. The nests of our 
British representative are from nine to fifteen inches in length, by about three-quarters of an inch 
in diameter. On escaping from the maternal nest the young Spider excavates with her jaws a hole 
in the sand one inch deep by one-sixteenth in diameter. This she lines with a close fabric of 
woven silk, carrying up the tube a short distance above ground, and fastening the aerial part to the 
grass-stems or other herbage—as shown on page 1030 by a section of a mature Trap-door Spider’s 
tube. Unlike the common Garden Spider, whose life is begun and ended in less than six months, 
our Trap-door Spider lives to quite an uncertain age—the writer having kept a number from infancy 
to nine years of age. 
