Page 28 - The Miracle in the Spider

28 THE MIRACLE IN THE SPIDER

While hunting its prey, the trapdoor spider keeps only its front legs outside.

The trap-door spider can live up to 10 years in its burrow. It spends
all its life in the dark tunnel and almost never emerges. Even when it
opens the cover to seize its prey its back legs do not leave the nest. If the
cover is opened with a twig the spider will come to the entrance and make
great efforts to close it up again. Females never leave the nest, while males
only do so to find a mate. When it is time for the female to produce its
offspring, it firmly closes the entrance, sticking the cover to the doorway
with its own thread. In this way it has been observed that the mother
spider can spend a year in the nest without leaving it.
Trap-door spiders hunt at night and keep the covers of their nests
firmly shut by day. As night starts to fall the spider pushes the cover
partly open to see whether it is fully dark yet. If it is dark it pushes the
cover partly open and rests its front legs outside. It can remain in this
position for many hours. When ants in particular approach the spider
immediately jumps on them at lightning speed and drags them down into
its burrow. The cover closes again under its own weight.
There is no doubt that in order to learn to live in the manner
described above some abilities requiring intelligence, for example
construction ability, will be needed. It will not be possible for the spider
to fabricate insulation from the heat or to camouflage itself in the sand
through coincidence or trial and error. Even before it starts to build the
tunnel, it "knows" that it will use its silk to protect it from the heat, that it