Page:Harvesting ants and trap-door spiders. Notes and observations on their habits and dwellings (IA harvestingantstr00mogg).pdf/140



more elongate form both of the cephalothorax and abdomen; the colours also of the present species are more distinctly distributed; a well-defined narrow marginal band, irregular on the inside, surrounds the thorax; and the caput has a large curved patch of the same on either side of the ocular area, with a broad tapering band tinged with orange, which runs from immediately behind the eyes to the thoracic junction, where it ends in a point. The transverse diameter of the ocular area is also less in proportion to its longitudinal diameter than in N. cæmentaria, and the eyes are all smaller, but placed on a similar oval eminence, and several bristles are directed forwards from the middle of the lower margin of the clypeus, while one or two others are found in the ocular area, and three or four more (long, strong, and nearly erect) form a longitudinal row along the middle of the central tapering thoracic band. The Falces are deeply yellow-brown, with two to three elongate oval patches or short longitudinal parallel bands on their upper sides; in their armature the falces are similar to those of N. cæmentaria. The Labium appeared to be less broad in proportion to its height, and the Sternum smaller and of a more oval form than in that species. The Abdomen is similarly marked, though the chocolate-brown markings appeared to be less deep and dense, being more broken up, but still forming several fairly defined, bold, and broad angular bars or chevrons on the upper side. The inferior spinners, though small (like most of the corresponding pair in species of this family), are yet considerably stronger than in N. cæmentaria.

Adult females of this spider were found in tubular silk-lined holes in the earth, closed at the external orifice with a flat scale-*like hinged lid, covered with lichens and mosses. Not quite half way down this tube is a tubular branch running off upwards at an angle of 45° or less; the main tube also at this point is furnished with an elliptical-hinged valve, with which the spider appears to have the power to close the entrance to the branch or to shut off the upper part of the main tube. This branch (found also in the tubes of very young examples) seems to be certainly a strong distinguishing character in the economy of the species, and separates it at once from N. cæmentaria. In the nest of N. meridionalis the tube also projects at times above the surface of the soil upwards among the herbage which serves to conceal it. Costa appears to have had before him this latter species as well as what is here taken as the typical N. meridionalis, as he speaks of the nests under his observation as being frequently branched, while his description would suit both species; his figure, however, more