Page:Supplement to harvesting ants and trap-door spiders (IA supplementtoharv00mogg).pdf/84

 have examined, were tenanted by the female alone. It seems strange that this spider, building as she does a nest apparently but poorly furnished either for concealment or defence, should be able to enter into competition with N. cæmentaria, whose solid, closely-fitting door appears so perfectly contrived for both. It will probably be found, however, when we are better acquainted with their respective ways of life, that they are really more nearly on a footing than they seem to be at first sight. I detected the remains of ants and the elytra of a beetle in one of these branched single-door nests. Now these may also be found in cork nests, so that Nemesia suffusa evidently competes with cæmentaria for its food, and this is of course the main cause of contention between all living creatures.

It is possible, that, if we knew all the uses to which the branch is put by the spider which constructs it, we should find that the advantages derived in the way of security from the existence of this second passage, counterbalance those possessed by the cork nest, which, though so perfectly closed, has only the one tube, and no other possible way of escape.

It may perhaps be no more than a coincidence, but we can scarcely avoid commenting upon the fact, that, just as this Montpellier wafer nest is simpler in construction than any found along the Riviera, so in like manner is the Bordeaux nest simpler than that of Montpellier. It thus becomes tempting to ask whether, in the case of these wafer nests, we shall not discover that the colder and damper climates are the homes of the builders of the simpler types, while the warmer and drier ones, where more food, more