Page:Harvesting ants and trap-door spiders. Notes and observations on their habits and dwellings (IA harvestingantstr00mogg).pdf/161

 moving at the mouth of a tiny hole [just large enough to admit a crowquill pen] in the mass of earth on the opposite side of the fern, to that in which the large trap-door lay.

The lamp-light fell full upon it, and I soon saw that the moving object was a very small spider, not bigger than that drawn at B 2 in Plate IX., which was at work in the mouth of its tube. Whether I had, in removing this mass of earth, destroyed the door I cannot say, but it is certain that the opening of the tube was completely uncovered, and it soon became apparent that the little spider was intent upon remedying this deficiency. After a few threads had been spun from side to side of the tube I watched the spider make one or two hasty sorties, apparently spinning all the while, and finally I saw her gather up an armful, as it were, of earth and lay this on the web. After this the occupant of the tube was concealed, but I could see from the movement of the particles of earth that they were being consolidated, and that the weaving of the under surface of the door was being completed. Next morning I was able to lift up the door, which had the form of a small cup of silk, in which the earth lay. It was then soft and pliant, but in ten days time it had hardened and become a very fair specimen of a minute cork door (see figs. A 1, A 2, of Plate XI.).

On one occasion a captive Nemesia meridionalis employed some pieces of scarlet braid which I had purposely strewed, along with bits of moss and fragments of leaves, in a circle round the opening of, and about two inches away from, the hole.

It is probable that these spiders have in times past learned by experience that they cannot do better than