The Food of M. distinctus.

This consists mainly of Diptera and small Lepidoptera. The young eat small organisms like Aptera (Podura). While catching her food she shows a cleverness that is immensely superior to that of other sedentary spiders.

On fine sunny days flies and other insects hover about the banks. Now and again they will alight on the bank near a group of nests. The spiders, if they are hungry, keep on the alert; when one hears a fly she creeps up from the bottom of her den, lifts the door slightly, and reconnoitres (fig. 10, b). Whilst peering out the spiders often become rather excited when an unsuspecting fly draws nigh, and this is shown by the rash way in which they sometimes open the door; the fly then discovers its enemy, and escapes. This makes the spider more circumspect, and the next fly that draws nigh is watched more carefully.

The person who is watching the hunting operations of the spider is compelled to admire her great patience, and also the way she controls, with a front leg, the peeping-out space between the door and the rim of the tube (fig. 10, b; notice the bent leg). At last her patience is rewarded: a fly accidentally alights right in front of the treacherous door; the spider throws open the trapdoor and leaps right upon the back of the fly, driving her falces into it (fig. 8). She withdraws quickly into the tube, and pulls the door till it shuts firmly. Then she crawls down to the end of her tube and devours the fly. The capturing takes a very short time, and unless the observer watches closely he will miss the whole operation.