The nest represented diagrammatically at fig. C, in Plate XIV., is shown of the natural size in Plate XVI., with the spider (Nemesia Simoni, Camb.) which constructs it (fig. A 1).
It belongs to the single-door unbranched wafer type, of which one example has already been described in the West Indian nest (see Ants and Spiders, p. 79, fig. B in woodcut); for, though this latter has a shorter tube and a much stouter silk lining than is the case with its European representative, there does not appear to be sufficient difference to justify their separation as distinct types.
This, which is the simplest known form of trap-*door nest, is quite new to Europe, and the spider inhabiting it proves also to be one hitherto undescribed; it has received from Mr. Pickard-Cambridge, the name of Nemesia Simoni,[1] being so called in honour of M. E. Simon, the well-known arachnologist.
During last May (1874) we spent a few days at Bordeaux on our homeward route. While there my sister was fortunate enough to discover a single nest of this type when we were out together on a spider-hunt near the little village of Lormont, which is situated on the opposite bank of the river to that on
- ↑ Mr. Pickard-Cambridge describes N. Simoni at p. 297 below. This species is remarkably well characterized, an assertion rarely to be made in the case of those Nemesias of which, as in the present instance, the female only is known. The elevated, rounded, and glabrous caput at once distinguishes it, not to speak of other peculiarities. Mr. Pickard-Cambridge alludes to the presence, in the specimens forwarded to him in spirits, of two singular indentations on either side of the caput (fig. A 3, Plate XVI.). I did not observe this when these spiders were alive, but I remember that the caput of one of these spiders which had been injured in capture contracted and expanded spasmodically, presenting a painful resemblance to laboured breathing. I have not observed this in other spiders.
