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.