1888.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA, 177 



varied from pale green to dark brown, and were laid in such a way 

 as to indicate that one straw had been used up before another was 

 sought for the building. There were a hundred and tw-enty pieces 

 in the structure, the lower small end being open as well as the upper. 

 The house was lined with a brown silk cocoon, upon wdiich the straws 

 were very tightly and evenly cemented. 



Hoping to see the method in which the creature w^orked, she re- 

 moved from the upper jwrtion of the truncate inverted cone, half a 

 whorl of its straws, put the larva back, closed its house, put it under 

 a wire screen, on a plate of tender rose leaves, and stuck through the 

 screen several dry, small stalks of grass. The active and shy larva 

 would never emerge from its domicile when she was looking at it, 

 but she managed to surprise it at its work so many times as to make 

 sure of its method. The holes made in the rose leaves indicated that 

 they furnished food for the worker. The dry straw was drawn into 

 such a position that its end could be laid upon the house, and 

 cemented, with silken lining, into its place at the upper, enlarging 

 end of the spiral layers. When laid and fastened, the lower end 

 being exactly in line with previously laid stalks, the upper end was 

 made by biting off the straw in the line of the upper edge of the 

 structure. Thirteen new straws were thus laid on to replace what 

 she had violently removed, and, after two weeks of active life under 

 the wire screen, the larva closed the upper aperture (its front door 

 and place of egress) by fastening it with a veil of silk, to the top of 

 the screen, from which it hung suspended. She did not perceive that 

 it had ever voluntarily departed from its house, though its head and 

 thorax often projected beyond its front door. By the small loAver 

 aperture refuse was cast out. This specimen died without having 

 reached its metamorphosis. 



June 12. 

 Eev. Henry C. McCook, D. D., Vice-President, in the chair. 

 Fifteen persons present. 



June 19. 



Mr. Charles Morris, in the chair. 



Thirteen persons present. 



The following papers were presented for publication : — 



"Observations on the Female Generative Apparatus of Hysena 

 crocuta." By Henry C. Chapman M. D. 



" A new Fossil Spider, Eoatypus Woodwardii." By Rev. Henry 

 C. McCook, D. D. 



