Supplement to Harvesting Ants and Trap-Door SpidersMoggridge, John Traherne
Science
Supplement to Harvesting Ants and Trap-Door Spiders
Moggridge, John Traherne
Ants; Trap-door spiders
[Footnote 158: "A large reddish spider (_Mygale_), named by the
natives 'sclàli,' runs about with great velocity. Its nest is most
ingeniously covered with a hinged cover or door, about the size of a
shilling, the inner face of which is of a pure white silky substance
like paper, while the outer one is coated with earth precisely like
that in which the hole is made, so that when it is closed it is
quite impossible to detect the situation of the nest. Unfortunately
the cavity for breeding is never seen except when the owner is out,
and has left the door open behind her."--_Dr. Livingstone_, _from_
"_Popular Accounts of Travels in South Africa_," chap. xvii. p. 221.]
This strikes me as a very curious fact, and I await with interest the
discovery of new species of wafer-building spiders in order to learn
whether this will continue to hold good or not.
That such discoveries will be made I entertain no doubt; indeed, I
have reason to believe that, even at Mentone, where perhaps more
pairs of eyes have been at work searching for trap-door spiders than
anywhere else, new species still remain to be detected. In April,
1873, the surface door of a wafer-nest together with a very small
portion of the tube was brought to me from the summit of the Aiguille
mountain, near Mentone. I was greatly surprised to learn that a
trap-door spider could live in such a situation, for the earth on
that plateau, which has an elevation of 4032 feet above the sea, is
always frozen hard for weeks and even months together during the
winter, and snow frequently lingers there. The spider, therefore,
which endures these conditions is scarcely likely to be of the
same species as any one of those inhabiting the lower country. The
trap-door spiders of these spurs of the Maritime Alps, are probably
of distinct species from those of the plains, but they are absolutely
unknown at present.
Then the males of several species, as, for example, those of _Nemesia
Simoni_, _N. suffusa_, _N. congener_, and _N. Moggridgii_, have yet
to be discovered; while of the habits of the males in general we know
little or nothing.
Indeed, there is no one species with the habits of which we can
say we are thoroughly acquainted, and we must admit that up to the
present time these ingenious little architects have been at least as
successful in concealing themselves from the intrusion of naturalists
as from the attacks of their proper enemies.
Surely these trap-door spiders, which have lain quiet in the earth
century after century, have hidden themselves long enough from our
inquisitive admiration, and the time has now come for us to seek them
out and learn their ways.
SPECIFIC DESCRIPTIONS OF TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS,
BY
THE REV O. PICKARD-CAMBRIDGE.
Genus Cteniza, Latr.
Cteniza Moggridgii, sp. n., Plate XX., fig. A, p. 254.
_Cteniza fodiens_ (Camb.)? ♀ in _Harvesting Ants and Trap-door
Spiders_, J. T. Moggridge, 1873, p. 89, Plate VII., excluding
synonyms there quoted.
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