OF WASHINGTON. 167 
as a member of the family Pholcidae, but a closer examination soon re- 
vealed its true, wonderful characters and the great importance of its dis- 
covery. 
The principal and most important characters are as follows : 
1. It has four true lung sacs or lamellar tracheae. 
2. It has a cribellum and calamistrum. 
3. The mandibular claws are inserted nearly vertically. 
4. The maxillae stand upon the broad and short labium (instead of the 
labium being placed between the two maxillae, as is the common case). 
5. It has the general appearance of a Pholcus. 
The four lungs present would place it into the Tribe Territelarice but 
for the calamistrum and cribellum, which organs no member of that 
group hitherto known possesses, and for the fact that this spider constructs 
a web above the ground. Besides these points, the whole aspect of our 
animal speaks against its being placed in that Tribe, for it resembles 
and shows evident affinity to certain families of the Tribe Tubitelariae 
and Retilelarise, and it would find a more natural place amongst these 
groups were it not for the number of lung-sacs, which excludes it at once 
from them. 
I sent some specimens to Prof. T. Thorell in Italy, acknowledged to be 
one of our best Arachnologists, and he was equally surprised at it. 
"This wonderful spider is the most curious one discovered in this cen- 
tury?" he wrote. 
At his suggestion I named it Hypochilus (from the position of the max- 
illae above the lip), and in appreciation of this distinguished naturalist 
and my friend, Hypochilus Thorellii, and the new family which it con- 
stitutes, Hypochilidce* 
This paper was discussed by Messrs. Schwarz, Smith, Mann, 
and Drs. Marx and Fox. In the course of this discussion Dr. 
Fox described more in detail the web-rfiaking habits of the species, 
and Dr. Marx gave a review of the different families of spiders 
and their mode of web-making. 
Mr. Townsend read some notes on 
TWELVE SPECIES OF COLEOPTERA TAKEN FROM STOMACHS OF TOADS IN 
MICHIGAN, WITH REMARKS ON THE FOOD-HABITS OF TOADS. 
BY TYLER TOWNSEND. 
At the time that Professor S. A. Forbes made known his observations 
relative to the food-habits of birds, it occurred to me, as it doubtless also 
did to others, that toads, and, indeed, all animals with an appetite for in- 
sects in a general way, where no particular discrimination is shown, were 
likewise injurious by destroying beneficial insects, which if left to live 
* The full description is published in Entomol. Amer., vol. iv, pp. 160-162. 
