Observations of this kind are difficult to make satisfactorily, at least in the case of the trap-door spiders with which I am acquainted, and which appear to be nocturnal in their habits. I have certainly never seen them out of their nests in the daytime, and but rarely detected one of them (Nemesia cæmentaria) even venturing to peer out of her door set ajar for the purpose.[1]
The following very singular account is given by M. Erber[2] of the habits of Cteniza ariana, which he watched in the island of Tinos. I quote from the abstract given in the Zoological Record cited below:—"At night these spiders come out of their nests, fasten the open trap-door to neighbouring objects, and spin a net, about six inches long by scarcely half an inch in height. In the morning the nets were removed, and Erber believes that the net of each night is added to the trap-door. He found eggs at the bottom of the tubes, attached singly to threads, to the number of about sixty. The young seem to form dwellings very early."
It would be very interesting to know whether these nocturnal habits are also found in our spiders on the Riviera.
- ↑ M. Olivier, however, states (Encyclopédie Méthodique, tom xviii., p. 228, Art. Araignées Mineuses, Paris, 1811) that he has twice found nests in the islands off Hyères and on the promontory of St. Tropez the doors of which were set open in the daytime and the tube empty, this seeming to imply that the spiders were out hunting and were diurnal in their habits. He did not see the spiders, but from his description the nest was of the cork type. . . . Here is an interesting point, and one which those naturalists who make Hyères the field of their observations should endeavour to throw further light upon.
- ↑ In Verhandlungen der k. k. zool. bot. Gesellschaft in Wien, vol. xviii. pp. 905, 906, quoted in Zoological Record, vol. v. p. 175 (1868); see also Appendix B.
