their nests in the same order in which the latter are placed in the
diagram, commencing with those of the cork type B, and then dealing
successively with the several wafer nests from C to G. We have
already spoken of A, the nest of _Atypus piceus_, and seen that our
present knowledge of this nest, of the habits of its occupant and of
those of its relations, is still far from complete.
The cork type is, as my readers will perhaps remember, the great
cosmopolitan type which ranges round the world, and which, curious to
say, is built by many different spiders belonging to distinct genera.
The idea of planning this very perfect bit of mechanism appears to
be the common inheritance of these several spiders, separated though
they are by wide intervals of geographical space as well as to
structural divergence.
At Mentone two distinct spiders construct nests of the cork type,
one of these being a _Nemesia_ and the other a _Cteniza_. They are
as unlike each other as they well can be, and it seems remarkably
strange that their nest-building instinct should be so similar. The
nest of the _Cteniza_ is indeed shallower than that of the _Nemesia_,
and a practised eye can usually trace a difference between the
slightly less angular lower surface and more semi-circular outline
of the door of the former, and the more abruptly bevelled and more
circular door of the latter.
These spiders and their nests have been already described and figured
in _Ants and Spiders_ under the names of _Ct. fodiens_ and _Nemesia
cæmentaria_. Recent discoveries have however shown that these spiders
possess distinctive characters of their own, and, though closely
allied to the species indicated, should be separated from them.
Last spring when pulling down an old terrace-wall (by permission) I
had the good fortune to discover the very remarkable male _Cteniza_
drawn at fig. A, Pl. XX., p. 254. I found no trace of a nest or web
of any kind, and the spider was merely hiding between the stones.
There appears to be scarcely any doubt that this is the male of the
female Mentonese _Cteniza_ which has, up to this time, been called
_Ct. fodiens_. A comparison with typical specimens of the true _Ct.
fodiens_ from Corsica, has however shown that the two are certainly
distinct, and Mr. Pickard-Cambridge[131] now describes the Mentonese
form under the name of _Ct. Moggridgii_.[132]
[Footnote 131: Mr. Pickard-Cambridge has once more kindly undertaken
the task of naming and describing my collections of trap-door
spiders, and the results of his labours will be found at the end of
the present work.]
[Footnote 132: I take this opportunity of thanking him for the
compliment. A description of this new species will be found at p.
254, below.]
The females of the true _Cteniza fodiens_ are far larger than those
of our new Mentonese species, and construct their nests in dry and
exposed places, instead of in the moist and shady ivy-covered banks
selected by the latter. I have found _Cteniza Moggridgii_ at San Remo
and Mentone, and it will probably be also discovered at Nice, but I
failed to detect it either at Cannes or Hyères.
The Corsican male at the first glance curiously resembles that found
at Mentone, but differs essentially in details and especially in
having the surface of the caput unbroken, whereas the caput of the
latter presents a very peculiar character in an impressed line which
runs across it from side to side (figs. A 1 and A 2). Both agree,
however, in being strangely unlike their females.
The other builder of a nest of the cork type at Mentone was, as has
been already stated, described and figured in _Ants and Spiders_
under the name of _Nemesia cæmentaria_. Now the true _N. cæmentaria_
of Latreille is found at Montpellier, the classical habitat where the
first discovery of trap-door spiders in Europe was made towards the
end of the last century, but its true characters have been hitherto
but imperfectly known.
I have lately been able to secure several specimens at this place,
and they certainly differed in their markings from the so-called
_cæmentaria_ of Mentone. M. Simon had previously informed me that
he considered our Mentonese spider distinct from the typical
_cæmentaria_, and had kindly proposed to give my name to the
Mentonese species; and now Mr. Pickard-Cambridge, on the receipt
of the specimens collected by me at Montpellier, coincides with M.
Simon, and adopts his nomenclature, calling the Mentonese _Nemesia N.
Moggridgii_.[133]
[Footnote 133: See below, p. 273.]
I found but one nest of the cork type at Montpellier, where it was
most abundant, and invariably inhabited by the same spider, so that
there can be little doubt that this is the celebrated _Nemesia
cæmentaria_ of Latreille, the nests of which were described by the
Abbé Sauvages in 1763.
When living, the pattern on the abdomen is far more distinct and is
traced on a paler ground than in _N. Moggridgii_, and the patterns
on the back of the caput, as seen in specimens preserved in spirits,
and the relative sizes of the lateral eyes, as well as other details
enumerated by Mr. Pickard-Cambridge, afford characters by which they
may be known apart; and it is probable that when the males, which
are at present unknown, shall be discovered, they will be found to
present other distinctive peculiarities. In the present instance
we have the reverse of the case described above, in which two very
distinct spiders constructed a similar nest, for here both spiders
and nests are much alike.
We have yet to learn what are the special advantages which each
type of nest affords; but it is plain from the fact of the
same type being adopted indifferently by both nearly- and most
distantly-related spiders, that the form of the nest is governed far
more by the conditions which it is contrived to meet, than by the
affinity or resemblance of the spiders which construct it.
I have found _N. Moggridgii_ at San Remo, Mentone, Cannes, Hyères,
and Marseilles, but thus far, I only know of the true _N. cæmentaria_
at Montpellier.
The latter spider is rather bolder than the former, and I frequently
saw it at Montpellier watching at the slightly raised door, with the
tips of the claws projecting from the nest, and it rarely failed to
resist most vigorously any attempt of mine to force the door open.
During the summer of 1873, I received two specimens of trap-door
nests from California. Both of these nests were of the cork type and
nearly entire, wanting only a small portion of the base of the tube;
they most closely resembled one another and were probably the work
of the same spider. For one of these, coming from the San Joaquin
valley, between the Calaveras and the Tejon, I have to thank M. J. C.
Puls, a Belgian entomologist residing at Ghent; and for the other,
containing the spider which had constructed it _alive within its
tube_ (!), I am indebted to Mr. G. H. Treadwell of San Francisco. The
former nest is drawn at fig. A, Plate XV., and the spider[134] from
the latter at fig. B of the same plate.
[Footnote 134: This spider, which proves to be a new species, is
described below (p. 260) as _Cteniza Californica_.]
[Illustration: _Plate XV._]
Mr. Treadwell had carried this spider and its nest, with the block
of earth in which it lay, all the way from Visalia, a town about 350
miles south of San Francisco, where he had taken it; the nest and
spider travelled safe to London enclosed in an empty cocoatina tin,
4-1/2 inches deep, and 2-3/4 across.
The nest was then entire, for these spiders appear to make singularly
shallow tubes; and it might have remained so up to the present day
had it not been for the rash curiosity of a chambermaid in the London
hotel where Mr. Treadwell was staying, who, smitten with a great
desire to learn what the heavy little box which came from the land of
gold might contain, proceeded to examine the earth, when the sudden
appearance of the spider frightened her so much that box and nest and
all were thrown with a crash upon the floor.
Were it not for this unlucky incident I might have seen a complete
specimen of this curious nest; but as it was, though the spider
miraculously escaped uninjured, the bottom of the nest was pounded
into dust, and only the upper portion remained intact.
Both this nest and that sent to me by M. Puls, were of the true cork
type, and presented a solid door with a bevelled edge, fitting into
the correspondingly bevelled lip of the tube, and shutting flush with
the surface of the ground. The lining of the tube was strong and
thick, but soft and silky to the touch.
The tube itself in Mr. Treadwell's specimen, when intact, cannot have
measured more than 3-1/2 inches in length; and we learn from Dr.
Lanzwert, who collected the other specimen, that the average length
of these nests does not exceed three inches. Dr. Lanzwert, writing
in one of the local papers[135] of "The Mygales or Ground Spiders,"
says, "the poisonous black tarantulas, so well known to naturalists,
are extremely common in California, but only in places upland, or
lowland which are very hot and dry. Their principal haunts are the
San Joaquin valley, between the Calaveras and the Tejon. A similar
species from the coast is not only smaller than the interior variety,
but the colours are much deeper. They both make a curious habitation
under the ground, composed of a glutinized, web-worked purse, about
three inches long, and which is furnished with a tightly-fitting lid
which they can open or shut at pleasure, and which is as cunning a
piece of insect architecture as is to be found in nature. These ugly
loathsome Californian spiders are often mentioned by thoughtless
scribes as carrying no more danger than a common wasp, like the
species of Italy, but it is well known that several persons, young
and old, have lost their lives in this State from the bite of such
tarantulas as are met with in our coast and interior country. Their
enemy in the Tulare valley is an immense shining black wasp,[136]
fully an inch long, which will pounce upon them, and after a short
battle drag the tarantula along in the most valiant style of heroic
conquest. These interior tarantulas are often seen measuring two
inches in the spread."
[Footnote 135: _The Evening Bulletin_ for Oct. 25, 1866.]
[Footnote 136: This insect was probably not a true wasp, though
belonging to an allied family; it may perhaps have been a _Pepsis_,
certain species of which genus Mr. Bates informs me he has frequently
seen near Santarem on the Amazon, hawking over the ground where the
huge trap-door spiders lived, and suddenly pouncing down upon one of
these creatures, often many times larger than themselves, when, after
paralysing their victim with their sting, they would deliberately saw
off the legs before dragging away the bodies!]
Mr. Treadwell was quite as much impressed as Dr. Lanzwert with the
belief that the bite of these spiders is fatal, but it does not
appear that either of these gentlemen have obtained conclusive
evidence in support of this allegation.
I have occasionally been bitten by the trap-door spiders in South
France, but have never experienced the slightest subsequent
inconvenience, nor was there any trace of inflammation or poisoning
about the punctures which they made. Mr. Blackwall[137] has made a
very careful set of observations on this head, and has caused some of
the largest species of British spiders to bite his finger and wrist
until the blood flowed, without the slightest ill effects. He also
inoculated himself at the same time with the poisonous secretion of
the spider and with that of the wasp; when the latter wound became
extremely painful, while the former was not perceptibly aggravated.
Mr. Blackwall obtained the spiders' poison by causing a spider to
seize a slip of clean glass with its mandibles, when a small quantity
of a liquid showing a slightly acid reaction was deposited.
[Footnote 137: Mr. J. Blackwall, _Researches in Zoology_, ed. 2, 1873;
chapter on "The Poison of the Araneidea," pp. 240-256.]
Mr. Treadwell informed me that these Californian trap-door spiders
leave their nests in the daytime, and may be seen walking by the
roadside, though they are always prepared to hurry back to their
nests on the approach of danger.
I received the spider which I have represented at fig. B, Pl. XV.,
p. 198 (_Cteniza Californica_), from this gentleman alive, and still
within the remaining portion of her nest, on the 6th of July, 1873.
She then had the legs and cephalothorax of a brownish-black, and
the abdomen of a dull, uniform, dusky chocolate brown, but with an
indistinct median line near the anterior end on the upper side,
intersected at right angles by a shorter line. Mr. Treadwell said,
however, that when captured, this spider was much darker, and of a
pitchy black colour. The hairs all over the body were short, but
especially so on the abdomen, which had the appearance of cloth or
felt.
This creature in many ways recalls _Cteniza fodiens_ of Corsica, and
in a less degree the _Cteniza_ of Mentone and San Remo.
We find not only the same general form of body, but also the same
claws furnished with only one tooth, instead of many as in _Nemesia_,
and other distinctive features; and it is interesting to observe in
the nest that the more semi-circular form of the door and the wider
hinge also connect it rather with _Cteniza_ than with _Nemesia_.
Here, as in all spiders yet observed in cork nests, we find the habit
of resisting any attempt to open the door, and many a time when I
have wished to raise the lid in order to drop in flies or other
food, I have been obliged to desist because the bending blade of my
penknife showed that I should injure the nest if I used greater force.
No doubt the shallowness of the nest is an advantage to its occupant
in one way--namely, that it enables the spider to start up at the
shortest notice, and cling on to the door.
It is curious to find that, far as California is removed from the
Riviera, the same habits of construction and self-defence are common
to the spiders of both countries, and that the bond of kinship sets
time and space at defiance.
I kept this spider all through the summer and early autumn at
Richmond (Surrey), sprinkling the nest from time to time with water,
and constantly supplying its inhabitant with flies, wood-lice,
grasshoppers, earwigs, and other similar dainties. She did not,
however, seem eager for food, and the insects provided for her, and
actually placed within the nest, were often turned out again almost
untouched.
When I placed living insects, such as grasshoppers, for example,
within the nest over-night, she would often allow them to remain
there unharmed, so that I found them ready to escape on opening the
door the following morning.
I never saw her leave the nest of her own free will, and when I made
her come out and set her to run in the garden, she began at once to
seek for a place to hide in, hobbling along in an ungainly way and at
a slow pace.
She must, however, have left the nest on more than one occasion,
unseen by me, for she deposited several clusters of eggs at various
times upon the under-surface of the gauze net which was fastened over
the mouth of the box in which she was imprisoned.
The first of these groups of eggs was laid during the night between
the 12th and 13th of July, and formed a raspberry-shaped cluster
attached to the gauze.
I have represented this cluster of the natural size at fig. B, 6, and
magnified at fig. B, 7, on Plate XV., only in an inverted position,
for they really hung downwards from the under side of the net.
These eggs were greyish white or pale brown, and varied in shape from
globose to oblong.
All were very small, the largest only measuring 1/2 line in its
greatest length, but it is doubtful whether any of these eggs were
fertile, and, though they appeared full and plump, many presented an
irregular and fissured surface.
A fortnight later (July 27) another cluster of eggs was laid, and
this time between the hours of five and eight P.M. When the lamp was
brought in at the latter hour, I perceived what I took to be a drop
of water hanging from the gauze cover above and rather in front of
the spider's door, the very position occupied by the cluster of eggs
previously described. On closer inspection this proved to be a drop
of a pellucid colourless liquid, in which some thirty eggs floated.
One egg was laid on the gauze at some distance from the main group,
and several were also attached to the inside of the tin box.
At midnight I found that the drop had coagulated and contracted, and
by the following morning the mass was quite dry and resembled the
former group, only that it was not quite so convex.
Some of the eggs forming this cluster were much larger than any in
the preceding one, and one measured as much as a line in length by
half a line in breadth. This group is shown magnified at fig. B, 8,
Plate XV., and some of the separate eggs more highly magnified at
fig. B, 9.
Between this date and the end of November when the spider died, eggs
were laid on seven distinct occasions--viz., on July 31, August 11,
15, 31 (when I again found the eggs floating in a drop of liquid,
having been deposited on the gauze between two and half-past four
o'clock in the afternoon); September 9 (23 eggs laid on the earth
near the entrance to the nest); September 19 (about 30 eggs on the
gauze), and November 4 (about 30 eggs on the gauze).
Thus, between July 13 and November 4, this spider laid nine clusters
of eggs, all but one of which were placed on the same part of the
gauze cover, above and a little in front of the door, and the total
number of eggs deposited cannot have been less than 250. It is
difficult to understand why she should have laid these eggs outside
the nest, unless indeed she knew them to be sterile, and so treated
them as refuse. I can scarcely believe that such a procedure is in
accordance with the ordinary habits of these spiders; for, if the
eggs and young are habitually exposed, then the perfect concealment
of the nest would lose one of its most important uses. When we
remember that there are minute hymenopterous insects which lay their
eggs within the eggs of the spiders, we can see how important it
may be that the entrance to a nest, which is at once nursery and
stronghold, should be closed by a well-fitting door, and one which
may exclude, not only the larger and more powerful enemies of the
full-grown spiders, but also the tiny and almost imperceptible
assailants of the eggs and young.
This Californian spider was always careful to eject from the nest
the remains of insects with which I had supplied her, and, as she
did so deliberately and by day as well as by night, I had frequent
opportunities of watching her. Sometimes, if not alarmed by any
sudden movement, she would remain for one or two minutes at the mouth
of the nest with the door partly raised, and I was glad to seize
these opportunities for making some experiments, with a view to
learning whether she would prove as sensitive to sound as she did to
other vibrations and to the sight of moving objects.
Placing myself so that the partly-opened door screened me from her
view, I was able to approach close to the nest without causing her
alarm, and to make different sounds and noises at distances varying
from three to fourteen inches.
In no case, however, did she pay the slightest attention; and neither
shrill and sudden whistling, deep chest and buzzing sounds, an octave
of piercing notes struck upon brass bells, my best imitation of
the whirring of the fern owl, or finally, the angry hum of a large
humble-bee imprisoned in a paper box, and held within three inches of
the door of the nest, appeared to produce any kind of effect. This
surprised me, I confess, for, though I am aware that no auditory
apparatus has as yet been discovered in spiders, I can scarcely
believe that they stand at so great a disadvantage as creatures would
seem to do which lack the power of hearing.
These experiments must not, however, be taken for more than they are
worth; and the results obtained may have been due rather to apathy
in the individual spider than to a want of perception in the race
generally. In any case they suggest the need of further experiment
and observation in this direction.
In October I carried this Californian spider out with me to Mentone,
and she lived there and appeared plump and well until the end of the
following month, when she suddenly died, having laid one more group
of eggs in the interval. On examination, I found a dark brown spot on
one side of the abdomen, and this, I think, probably indicates that
her death was caused by some insect of the ichneumon family, which
had laid its eggs within the spider's body, after having stabbed it
at the place indicated by the discolouration.
Not very long before this melancholy event occurred, I had put the
spider to some inconvenience in order to secure her portrait from
life, to effect which I took her from her nest and placed her in a
deep china saucer.
She exhibited the strongest dislike to exposure, and sought to hide
herself even under a fold of blotting-paper which lay in the saucer
with her. I also noted that she appeared quite incapable of walking
up the sides of the saucer, and it would therefore seem that she was
destitute of the viscid hairs which enable some spiders to traverse
glazed and polished surfaces.
Seeing this anxiety on the part of the spider for concealment, it
came into my mind that, perhaps, if she were placed on the surface
of a pot full of garden mould she might excavate a tunnel in order
to hide herself from view. This I accordingly did in the evening of
November 15, and on the following morning I was delighted to find
that she had commenced to dig and was still at work.
In little more than an hour's time the hollow had become about the
size of half a walnut, and resembled in its nearly semi-circular
outline and size the surface of the door of her own nest. I was
greatly pleased to be able to watch the creature at the work of
excavation, a sight which I believe no naturalist has ever had before.
The legs took no part in the digging, and the palpi were but little
used, the mandibles and their fangs being the implements chiefly
employed. As soon as a little earth had been loosened and gathered
up, the spider walked up to the edge of her excavation and deposited
there her mouthful of particles of earth, separating and working the
mandibles up and down in the effort to part with the pellet, which
had been carried between the fangs and the mouth-organs. Each pellet
was very small, and the operation appeared to be excessively tedious
and laborious. I had expected to see the spider scrape out large
quantities of earth at a time, and either drag it backwards or kick
it out behind her as a terrier does when working at a rabbit-burrow;
but no, every little pellet removed was carried forwards, and
deposited separately on the "tip."
On the two following days, the 17th and 18th November, the spider
remained almost inactive, and brooded over the cavity she had made,
and which still remained too shallow to conceal or even contain her.
At 4 P.M. on the latter day I made a hole for her in the earth, and,
after some indecision, she took possession of it. Next day, however,
finding that she remained motionless in the hole which I had made,
and displayed no apparent intention of either lining it with silk or
furnishing it with a door, I replaced her in her own nest.