190 cook: web-spinntng fly larvae 



demies of "leaf curl" and " Krauselkrankheit" in England and 

 Germany respectively, the description of which are much like 

 the troubles of today.^ Are our potato varieties passing thru an- 

 other period of decline in vigor? 



ZOOLOGY. — Web-spinning fly larvae in Guatemalan caves. 

 0. F. Cook, Bureau of Plant Industry. 



The limestone mountains of the Department of Alta Verapaz' 

 in eastern Guatemala, abound in caves, most of them as yet quite 

 unexplored. Ancient remains show that some of the caves were 

 used for burial places in prehistoric times, which may account 

 for the aversion of the present Indian population to entering this 

 underground world. Two caves on the Trece Aguas coffee estate 

 near Senahu were visited by the writer on March 30, 1906, to see 

 whether they contained millipeds or other cave-dwelling arthro- 

 pods. 



In one of the caves, which was very dry, a few human teeth 

 were found with small circular mounds of earth where ancient 

 pottery vessels had crumbled, tho in some cases the rims remained. 

 The other cave, which was entered by crawling thru a low narrow 

 passage, partly filled with water, had also been used for burial 

 purposes and one of the chambers showed a few rude designs 

 traced in black, something after the manner of Mayan hiero- 

 glyphics. There were several large chambers, some of them with 

 lofty roofs and extensive deposits of stalactites and stalagmites. 

 The air was very damp owing to wet walls and dripping water. 

 It was in one of the inner chambers of this cave, probably at least 

 100 yards from the entrance, that curious fringelike webs were 

 noticed hanging from the roof. A sloping floor brought us up 

 close to the webs, and the light of an acetylene lamp rendered the 

 glistening threads very conspicuous against a background of 

 complete darkness. 



The general plan of these webs is entirely unlike that of any 

 spider or other web-building arthropod of the. upper world, and 

 could be used only in caves or in very sheltered recesses of forests. 



2 Cf. Thos. Dickson, Memoirs Caledonian Hort. Soc, March 6, 1810. 



