I hope therefore that other naturalists will make further investigations, and especially that they will endeavour to secure the male.
I obtained twelve spiders and thoroughly followed the course of ten nests; I opened thirteen more nests, but failed to trace their structure satisfactorily.
The upper part of this nest is shown of the natural size in Plate XVII. with the spider (_Nemesia suffusa_, Camb.[140]) which constructs it. This is again a wafer nest without any lower door, and this absence of a lower door alone distinguishes it as a type from the branched nest represented at F in the diagram, just as the same deficiency separated the Bordeaux type from that at fig. E.
[Footnote 140: We have again in this instance an exemplification of the rule that a new type of nest indicates the presence of a new spider, and hitherto, this rule has proved without exception. Mr. Pickard-Cambridge's description of _N. suffusa_ will be found at p. 295, below. Its slender proportions, cylindrico-ovate abdomen, marked with narrow linear chevrons, and caput without, or almost without, any median line or marking, form some of its more striking characteristics.]
In this new single-door branched type, the branch makes a more or less acute angle with the main tube, and reaches the surface of the ground, but is there closed by a layer of particles of earth slightly bound together with silk, forming an immovable cover or thatch. This cover constitutes, however, but a slight obstruction and could easily be torn away by the spider if she needed to use this passage as a way of escape.
These nests were tolerably plentiful at a place called Les Mourines, a short distance from Montpellier, where they were mixed with cork nests in the steep hedge banks. The nests were from 8 to 10 inches deep, and, as in all the trap-door nests which I have examined, were tenanted by the female alone. It seems strange that this spider, building as she does a nest apparently but poorly furnished either for concealment or defence, should be able to enter into competition with _N. cæmentaria_, whose solid, closely-fitting door appears so perfectly contrived for both. It will probably be found, however, when we are better acquainted with their respective ways of life, that they are really more nearly on a footing than they seem to be at first sight. I detected the remains of ants and the elytra of a beetle in one of these branched single-door nests. Now these may also be found in cork nests, so that _Nemesia suffusa_ evidently competes with _cæmentaria_ for its food, and this is of course the main cause of contention between all living creatures.