Sherry Townsend, age 11, of Colton., Calif., for her question:

What is a trap  door spider?

Many peop1e would like to wipe out the fleas and mosquitoes. But some of thebe people also abhor spiders and would like to annihi7ate them. This is not very reasonable, for spiders feed on insects and do their daily best to keep dawn the population of pesky bugs.

There are some 30,000 species of spider, each one leading a fascinating life of her own. Mr. Spider, as a rule, is eaten up by his larger wife. Most studies tell only of Mrs. Spider, and in most cases her wondrous ways and life Story are amazing. Most, but not all, of the ladies are spinners of silken threads. Many of them spin webs to trap the live insects on which they feed. But the trap door spider uses her threads to spin an exquisite home for herself and her growing children.

As everyone knows, a trap door is a hinged door that opens in the floor. In our homes it usually Opens up into the attic floor or perhaps onto the roof. But our homes are above ground. The nome of the trap door spider is a burrow, and her trap door opens level with the ground. She is a large, dark colored spider, and her tunnel may be 6 inches deep and almost 1 inch wide.

She uses her silk to line the walls of her burrow with layers of soft and delicate webbing. The circular opening is her doorstep, which She carefully bevels to Slope slightly downward. Then she makes a round lid of woven webbing, just big enough to fit the round door. She bets it in place and attaches it with a movable hinge of more silken threads. The top is covered with crumbs of dirt, and when the door is closed no one would notice it.

Mrs. Spider can open and close her amazing trap door from the burrow below. Most of her time is spent indoors. She comes out only to hunt for food. She is very fast on her eight spidery feet and easily catches all the insects she needs to feed herself and the growing youngsters that share her home. The young spiders may stay with their mother for eight months before they leave to build trap door burrows of their own.

A trap door spider may be kept as a pet. In a safe terrarium she may live to become 10 years old. But in the wild she has many natural enemies, and life is risky. Her door is watched by the parasitic wasp. If she fails to open and close it very fast, she is captured and perishes at an early age.