208 



HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- G S S I P. 



may be conveniently seen in the collected edition of 

 his Works, printed for the Sydenham Society, 1845. 

 The present note is no matter of controversy, but 

 simply specific references, by which any person may 

 realize an historical truth affecting the just claim 

 of an eminent English physiologist.— Q. F. 



ZOOLOGY. 



New Okder of Hydrozoa. — Professor Allman 

 describes in Nature, July 30th, a new order of 

 hydrozoa discovered on the southern shores of 

 France. This animal is attached to a sponge, and 

 permeates the spongy tissue. Although a hydro- 

 zoan, it is not a hydroid, and cannot be referred to 

 any of the existing orders of the hydrozoa. The 

 chitonous tubes which permeate the sponge tissue 

 are united towards the base of the sponge, and 

 constitute a composite colony of zooids. The tubes 

 are increased in width towards their free extremity, 

 and the polypite inhabiting each puts forth a re- 

 tractile crown of tentacles. In many respects 

 this new hydrozoan resembles the Campanularian 

 zoophytes. The name of Stephanocyphus mira- 

 hilis has been given by the Professor to this beau- 

 tiful object. In no instance was this zoophyte 

 unaccompanied by the sponge. The new order to 

 which it belongs has been named Thecomedtisce. 



Generic Names. — We have some excellent 

 scientific journals in this country, but none that 

 covers exactly the same ground that Science- 

 Gossip does. Let me, however, suggest one thing 

 to a number of your contributors in reference to 

 scientific nomenclature. It is presuming too much 

 to suppose that their readers in other countries 

 should know the genus of the animals or plants 

 they allude to by merely inserting the initials of 

 the generic names. Of course, it is not necessary 

 to repeat them when once given in an article, 

 except in cases where other generic names in the 

 context intervene. " Notes on the Entomological 

 Season of 1873," in the January number, 187-4, is 

 an illustration of this delinquency. Specialists, 

 well versed in scientific literature of their spe- 

 cialties, may be able to comprehend what name is 

 meant by an initial alone, but this is not the case 

 with amateurs, nor yet with those who take a 

 general view of the subject. — ii.S. Rathvon, Lan. 

 Pa., U.S. 



The Processionarv Moth.— It will interest 

 many to know that this moth, concerning which 

 queries have been more than once propounded in 

 Science-Gossip, has unexpectedly turned up in 

 Britain. There are, however, two species nearly 

 allied, to which the name of the " Proeessiouary " 

 has been applied, the particular one recently taken 

 being that designated C. piti/ocampa, and considered 



to be identical with the insect which the Romans 

 were acquainted with, and which received from 

 them the name of " the moth of the fir." On 

 account of the deleterious effects produced by the 

 hairs of the caterpillars, it was regarded as a 

 crime to Sidmmister jnti/ocampa. The first discovery 

 was made last autumn, when Mr. Batchelor de- 

 tected in a pine-tree wood near Southborough, a 

 mass of pupai in a deserted magpie's nest. These 

 he distributed, believing them to be something 

 rare, i^robably C processionea ; and about the 

 middle of Eebruary this year he found a number 

 of silken nests on the tops of pines, or Scotch 

 firs, which were being cut down, and the larvae, in 

 their mode of procedure, showed all those pecu- 

 liarities which have been so frequently described 

 by continental observers. Some were also taken 

 by the same entomologist in another spot on the 

 Penshurst-road. Two or three weeks later, an- 

 other gentleman, Mr. Peyton, discovered colonies 

 feeding on fir-trees at Seal, near Sevenoaks, and the 

 larva have been proved to be tiie same as those 

 taken near Southborough. Both accounts appear 

 to be bond fide, and specimens have been submitted 

 to, and named by, Mr. Doubleday, but there are 

 some difficulties that yet remain to be cleared up. It 

 is strange that pupae should be found in autumn and 

 larva; early in the following spring ; and, moreover, 

 it is not the habit of C. pitjjocampa to be gregarious 

 in pupation, each usually going alone to the surface 

 of the earth. I have no doubt these curious dis- 

 coveries will lead many naturalists to pay more 

 particular attention to the pines and firs, especially 

 in the county of Kent. — /. R. S. C. 



Length of Spiders' Cords.— It has often been 

 a matter of speculation by M'hat means the inge- 

 nious arachnids carry a thread a long distance from 

 one point of suspension to another, and recently I 

 observed one cord, swung to by a spider of mode- 

 rate dimensions, which exceeded anything I had 

 before noticed in that way, as it extended about 

 eight feet from the top of a door to a shrub, and at 

 an altitude of about seven feet from the ground. 

 One can hardly suppose it possible that a thread 

 could be projected through the air for that distance 

 so as to attach itself; nor does the idea that the 

 spider first secured one end and then travelled to 

 the opposite point with his ball of cord to fasten 

 the other, and tighten it, like a man fixing a 

 telegraph-wire, appear much more feasible. — 



/. R. s. a 



Ichneumon of the Aphis.— Although I have no 

 special knowledge of llymenoptcra, I cannot help 

 observing an incorrect statement at page 180 of 

 SciENCE-Gossir for July, which you may like to 

 correct. The " Ichneumon of the Aphis " there 

 drawn is not in the least like OpJtion hdemn, to 



