Harvesting Ants and Trap-Door Spiders: Notes and Observations on Their Habits and DwellingsMoggridge, John Traherne
Science
Harvesting Ants and Trap-Door Spiders: Notes and Observations on Their Habits and Dwellings
Moggridge, John Traherne
Ants; Trap-door spiders
The _Abdomen_ has a far more spotted appearance; in some examples
a similar series of dark, broken, slightly angular bars is
indistinctly visible on the hinder half of the upper side; in
others (the more common type) the darker colouring preponderates,
and some transverse, broken, slightly angular, or nearly curved
bars or lines of pale spots constitute the pattern; the lateral
margins of the thorax are not so distinctly yellow as in _N.
meridionalis_, and there is a single longitudinal stripe on the
caput, of a dull orange-yellow brown, commencing directly behind
the eyes and tapering to the thoracic junction; the depression
or pit at this point is more strongly marked than in either of
the two foregoing species; the ocular area is also smaller, and
its transverse diameter is less in proportion to its width; the
bristles on the margin of the clypeus, as also those within the
ocular area and in the central longitudinal line of the caput, are
similarly disposed to those in _N. meridionalis_, but are more
numerous; in some details, however, of form and structure--viz.,
the Labium and Sternum--the present species is more nearly allied
to _N. meridionalis_ than to _N. cæmentaria_. The _Legs_ seemed
to be rather longer and stronger than in either; the tarsi and
metatarsi of the two first pairs, as well as the digital joints of
the palpi, are rather densely clothed a little underneath on their
outer sides with a kind of fringe or pad of close-set hairs; in
other respects the armature of the legs appeared to be similar to
that of the other two species, except that in the present one there
are three _short strong red-brown spines in a longitudinal row on
the outer sides of the genual joints of the third pair_; these
spines were plainly visible in all the examples found, but did not
exist in any one of those of the two former species. The armature
of the falces, which are of a uniform yellow-brown colour, is
similar to that of those species.
Adult females were found in tubular silk-lined unbranched holes,
closed at the orifice with a flat scale-like hinged lid concealed
by mosses and lichens, and having a horse-shoe shaped second valve
or door less than half way down the tube, of which it serves
to shut off the upper part. In this nest, as in that of _N.
meridionalis_, the upper part of the tube often projects above the
surface of the soil.
[Illustration: Nemesia Eleanora ♂ Adult, natural size.]
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