Sulzeri),[1] and this creature does not appear to deserve the name of trap-door spider, for in three nests which M. H. Lucas kindly showed me, preserved at the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, the mouth of the tube was destitute of any covering. I gathered from what I saw, and from what M. Lucas told me, that these nests [which he had taken in the neighbourhood of Paris], consist of a silk tube from eight to ten inches long, of which about one inch only at the lower extremity penetrates the earth, the remainder being carried upwards in an irregular and sinuous course among the stems and leaves of small plants and grasses to which it is attached. When the tube is removed from these supports it collapses, and appears like a rather coarsely woven ribbon-shaped strip of silk.[2]
Four types of trap-door nest, properly so called, may now be distinguished in the world at large, and these are represented diagrammatically in the following woodcut.[3]"Dr. Leech has taken specimens of Atypus Sulzeri in the vicinity of London and Exeter. It excavates, in humid situations, a subterraneous gallery, which is at first horizontal, but inclines downwards towards its termination. In this gallery it spins a tube of white silk, of a compact texture, about half inch in diameter. . . . Part of the tube hangs outside of the aperture to protect the entrance."
It would be interesting to learn whether these differences permanently distinguish the English from the French nests, and if so, whether the spiders which construct them are not, as Prof. Ausserer is inclined to believe, distinct also.]
- ↑ Unless it should prove, as Prof. Ausserer suggests, that the British Atypus is distinct from the Continental, when it would bear the name of Atypus Blackwallii. (Ausserer, l. c. p. 17).
- ↑ I have never been able to meet with an English specimen of the nest of Atypus; but it would appear from the descriptions that the English differ from the French nests in being subterranean, and in having the mouth of the tube concealed by a loose flap of silk. Mr. Blackwall says: [Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland, part i. p. 14
- ↑ Where all the figures, except C 1, and D 1, which are of the natural size, are reduced to about one-third of the actual size in large specimens.
