So 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



gations, and note the period elapsing between coition 

 and the deposit of eggs, for although the female 

 lived for nearly a month no eggs were laid, as is often 

 the case when spiders are in captivity. The savage 

 propensities in this instance ultimately asserted them- 

 selves in a provoking manner, and the female, after 

 killing and eating her partner, leaving only his legs 

 and a morsel of the harder skin of the cephalothorax, 

 was found hanging dead in the web. When disturbed 

 and caused to separate, the spiders did not manifest 

 the same alarm as under ordinary circumstances, and 

 returned to their original position after the lapse of a 

 minute or two, the movements of both seeming to be 

 guided by touch rather than by sight. From experi- 

 ments I have made, I am inclined to think that the 

 sense of touch is far more acute in spiders than that 

 of sight, notwithstanding the number, and, in some 

 species, the size of the eyes. I have taken a common 

 house fly and gradually approached it to a spider, 

 while it was struggling vigorously, not letting it touch 

 the web, but the spider would take no notice ; yet, 

 immediately the fly was cast into the web, it was 

 seized. I have cast a fly into a far corner of a web, 

 and the spider, instead of making straight for the fly, 

 would advance hesitatingly, feeling with the claws of 

 the front legs, sometimes taking a step in the wrong 

 direction, and occasionally reaching the spot too late, 

 the fly having broken away by struggling. 



I think your correspondent, E. Lamplough, must 

 have mistaken the distended portion of the palpal 

 organ for the minute drop of transparent fluid, as I 

 fell into this error myself, before using a lens in ex- 

 amining the action of the spiders. 



J. E. Arnett. 



Stourbridge. 



ON BRITISH FRESH-WATER MITES. 



By C. F. George. 



No. VI. 



I MUST now very briefly mention the soft-skinned 

 division of Arrenurus. I have only met with a 

 few examples of these mites as yet ; those that I have 

 found, though females, have been very small ; they 

 possess the same kind of mandibles as the mites in 

 the other division, but the skin is membranous, and 

 marked with lines, somewhat like those on our own 

 fingers ; the body is globular, and has no impressed 

 line on the back ; their colours are very marked ; they 

 have rather long hairs sparingly scattered on the 

 body, and these project behind, so as to resemble 

 those seen on the hard-skinned specimens, each hair 

 seems to spring from, or close to, the openings of a 

 gland : their legs, mandibles, and thigh-plates are of 

 course chitinous, and they also have a chitinous 

 plate on each side, external to the vulva. I have 

 recognised but two species as yet ; the first, I take 



to be Arrenurus frondator (Koch) ; the Y-shaped 

 mark is white, and the other coeca appear to be in 

 rough, roundish masses of green colour : the other 

 somewhat resembles Arrenurus rutilator (Koch). 

 The mandibles and legs are of a beautiful blue ; the 

 body of the mite of a deep yellow, the Y-shaped 

 mark is white, and the other coeca are yellowish- 



Fig- SS- — Arrenurus frondator (?) Q, 

 upper side (5 objective). 



Fig. 56. — Arrenurus 

 frondator (?) 5 , 

 under side. 



Fig- 57- — Arrenurus rutilator (?), Q, upper side, 

 (| objective). 



Fig 58.— Arrenurus rutilator (?) 9, under side. 



brown. The eyes of both these mites are of the 

 colour of carmine. On dropping alcohol on one 01 

 the living mites, it ejected white threads, apparently 

 of albumen, from the orifices of the glands near the 

 hairs. I have observed the same things take place 

 when other water mites were immersed in strong 

 alcohol. 



Herb Beverages. — Will some reader of Science- 

 Gossip say what plants are best for making herb 

 beverages, and the best way to use them ? — Inquirer. 



