The Structure and Habits of SpidersEmerton, J. H. (James Henry)
Science
The Structure and Habits of Spiders
Emerton, J. H. (James Henry)
Spiders
Moggridge once took a _Cteniza Californica_ out of her nest, and put
her on a pot of earth, and the next morning had the good luck to see
her at work digging. She loosened the earth with her mandibles, and
took it in little lumps with the mandibles and maxillæ, and carried it
away piece by piece. It took her an hour to dig a hollow as large as
half a walnut. He saw the making of the door twice by other species.
Once he dug a hole for a spider in some earth, and the next day found
her in it, and the top covered by a little web, on which were scattered
bits of earth and leaves, which had evidently been put there by the
spider. The second night, enough dirt and silk were added to make the
door of the usual thickness; but the spider never finished it so that
it would open properly on its hinge. Another time Moggridge saw at the
mouth of a very small hole a spider at work making a door. She spun
a few threads across the hole, then gathered up with her front-legs
and palpi an armful of dirt, and laid it on top of them. She then got
under the pile, into the tube; but the motions of the dirt showed that
she was still at work on it, and next morning the under side had been
thickly covered with web, and the whole separated from the mouth of
the tube, except at one side, where the usual hinge was left. The new
door was at first soft, but in two or three days hardened, and appeared
exactly like an old door.
These spiders are accustomed to put on the door moss like that which
grows around it, and so conceal the door from sight; but when Mr.
Moggridge took away the moss, and dug up the ground around a hole, and
then destroyed the cover, the spider made a new one, and brought moss
from a distance to put on it, thereby making it the most conspicuous
thing in the neighborhood.
Mr. S. S. Saunders tried to see trap-door spiders make their nests.
When the earth was dry, they would do nothing; but, after watering it,
they several times dug new holes, but always in the night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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