Page:Harvesting ants and trap-door spiders. Notes and observations on their habits and dwellings (IA harvestingantstr00mogg).pdf/188

 E.

The Nest of the Tarantula (Lycosa Tarentula).

As it is of some interest to compare the burrow of the Tarantula with the nest of its near allies the trap-door spiders, I give the following résumé of M. Dufour's observations: —

"Lycosa Tarentula forms a cylindrical burrow in the earth, often more than a foot long, and about one inch in diameter. At about four or five inches below the surface the perpendicular tube is bent horizontally, and it is at this angle that the Tarantula watches for the approach of enemies or prey.

"The external orifice of the burrow of the Tarantula is ordinarily surmounted by a separately constructed tube, and which authors have not hitherto mentioned; this tube, a true piece of architecture, rises to about an inch above the surface of the ground, and is sometimes as much as two inches in diameter, being thus larger than the burrow itself. This tube is principally composed of fragments of wood fastened together with clayey earth, and so artistically disposed one above the other that they form a scaffolding having the shape of an upright column, of which the interior is a hollow cylinder."

M. Dufour observes, however, that the exterior tube was not found in all the nests. In every case the tube was lined with silk throughout its whole length.

F.

The following description is that given by Prof. Ausserer in his monograph of Territelariæ, inconsistent with footnote and other page] of a male trap-door spider which was found at Nice, and named by Herr L. Koch