All the spiders which have so far concerned us are Araneae verae, and we have incidentally had occasion to note some of the principal families of that division—Epeiridae (or Argiopidae as some prefer to call them), Theridiidae, Agelenidae, Thomisidae, Lycosidae and Attidae.
Indeed there is only one theraphosid spider that there is the least likelihood of our coming across in this country. Their true home is in hotter climes, and though stragglers from their army are not rare in the warmer portions of temperate regions, they abound only in tropical countries. They include the “Trap-door” spiders, common in the Mediterranean region and in many other widely distant parts of the world, and the great “Bird-eating” spiders of the tropics—the spiders which are quite wrongly but universally alluded to in America as Tarantulas.
The single British example is well worth the study of any reader who is fortunate enough to come across it. But he must first catch his hare, for Atypus affinis (or piceus as it used to be called) does not grow in every hedge-row, nor is it easy to find it where it does occur. Most of the localities recorded are in the south of England. It is a thick-set dark-coloured spider about half an inch in length, and with very thick, powerful mandibles, which, as we have seen, work vertically.
Its nest is a loosely-woven tubular structure, which partly lines a more or less vertical hole in the ground and partly lies exposed on the surface, but which does not present any obvious opening for entrance and exit.
The situation chosen is generally a sloping sandy bank covered with vegetation. The burrow is about eight inches in depth and about three quarters of an inch in diameter. Near the bottom it narrows and then expands into a somewhat wider chamber where the spider lives and constructs its egg-cocoon. The portion of the tube above the ground is sometimes longer but more often shorter than the buried portion, and it tapers to a closed end.
Mr Joshua Brown, who first found this spider near Hastings in 1856, took home several of the tubes with the spiders inside. He could find no opening, and though the spiders moved up and down the tubes they did not emerge. On tearing a tube open he found no remains of insects inside, but in one case he came across a worm, partly within, and partly outside the lower part of the tube, and apparently partially devoured by the spider.
The same species is not rare in France and M. Simon’s observations on it closely agreed with those of Mr Brown. He believed that the spider chiefly depended for its food on earthworms which, in the course of their burrowings, came casually into its neighbourhood. Since these observations, however, considerable light has been thrown on the habits of the spider by Enock, who found colonies on Hampstead Heath and near Woking. His investigations extended over several years, and wonderful patience was needed before the secrets of this curious animal were divulged.
It appears that the female, when once established, never leaves the nest at all! The aerial portion of the web was always a puzzle, but now we know, thanks to Enock, that it constitutes the whole hunting ground of the spider. Like promises and pie-crust it is apparently made to be broken. If it is accidentally brushed against by a passing insect the spider is instantly aware of the fact, rushes to the spot, and transfixes the intruder with its powerful mandibles. It turns on its back to do this, and strikes the insect from behind, afterwards pulling its prey through the weft and into the tube by main force. It drags it to the bottom of the tunnel, makes sure of its death, and immediately returns and repairs the rent.
Insects were held against the tube, and the spider, if hungry, accepted them at once; if replete however, it always gave a tug at the tube, which retracted a portion of it into the burrow—a curious action which Enock quite learnt to interpret as the “I don’t want any more” movement.
The males made nests exactly like the females, but shallower, and they left them to search for their mates, leaving the ends open. On finding a female nest, they “serenaded” by tapping with their palps, and after some delay, tore open the web and entered. By and by the female came up and repaired the rent, first pulling the edges together with her jaws and then uniting them with silk from her spinnerets. In one case nothing more was seen of the male for nine months, when his empty skin was observed at the end of the tube. After nine months of connubial bliss his consort had devoured him!