824 Of I the AMal Spider. 



aeronauts in their flight, and placed them on the brass gno- 

 mon of the sundial, and had the gratification to see them 

 prepare for, and recommence, their aerial voyage. Having 

 crawled about for a short time, to reconnoitre, they turned 

 their abdomens from the current of air, and elevated them 

 almost perpendicularly, supporting themselves solely on the 

 claws of their fore legs, at the same instant shooting out four 

 or five, often six or eight, extremely fine webs, several yards 

 long, which waved in the breeze, diverging from each other 

 like a pencil of rays, and strongly reflecting the sunbeams. 

 After the insects had remained stationary in this apparently 

 unnatural position for about half a minute, they sprang off from 

 the stage with considerable agility, and launched themselves 

 into the air. In a few seconds after they were seen sailing 

 majestically along, without any apparent effort, their legs 

 contracted together, and lying perfectly quiet on their backs, 

 suspended from their silken parachutes, and presenting to 

 the lover of nature a far more 

 interesting spectacle than the 

 balloon of the philosopher. 

 One of these natural aeronauts 

 I followed, which, sailing in 

 the sunbeams, had two dis- 

 tinct and widely diverging 

 fasciculi of webs, as in the 

 annexed sketch {fig. \6\.)y 

 and their position in the air 

 was such, that a line uniting them would have been at right 

 angles with the direction of the breeze." 



In conclusion, permit me to mention, in reference to the 

 glowworm, that I was quite aware of the opinion that had been 

 entertained respecting the light of the glowworms, and reite- 

 rated by my reviewer ; and the reason why I did not mention it 

 was, that I held it to be unsatisfactory ; my reasons are, that 

 the insect, in its imperfect form of the larva, is gifted with 

 light, as well as in its perfect and ultimate stage of metamor- 

 phosis. The winged male, as in the Zampyris italica, carries 

 its torch as well as the apterous female. Superadd to these, 

 that the inference would not apply to the case of the crawling 

 jScolopendra electrica on the one hand, or the winged Ful- 

 gura lanternaria on the other, 



" That shoot like stars athwart the night." 



I have the honour to be, Sir, &c. 

 JulylQ. 1828. V J. Murray. 



