Note 138 — SUPPLEMENT TO TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS.
Reading edition
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.