Qitcries and Answers, !29l 



of summer, on a furze bush. His abdomen exceeded in size a wren's egg, 

 was of an extremely bright yellow, and marked with brown something in 

 the shape of the marks on a diadem spider (^rauea diadbma). {fig. 78.) 

 After I had returned home, delighted 78 



with my prize, I put him into a work- 

 box made of fine wire gauze, together 

 with large specimens of the before- 

 mentioned species, many of whom he 

 devoured. He was of great strength, 

 and had very long sharp jaws, but I had 

 not the curiosity to find out whether 

 they were venomous ; his legs were 

 long, and after his committing these 

 murders I was obliged to remove him 

 into a mouse cage, and subsequently into a box. I fed him daily on flies, 

 and allowed him to walk about after being fed. Notwithstanding all my 

 care, however, he gradually lost colour, grew thinner, and in about a month 

 he died. I, being ignorant at that time how to preserve spiders, ran him 

 through with a pin after the manner of other insects, and placed him in my 

 cabinet, where he now remains, but shrivelled to half size, and retaining 

 hardly any thing of his former beauty. Position of the eyes thus, : : : : 



If any of your correspondents can tell me, through the medium of your 

 Magazine, to what species it belongs, and likewise a simple and easy 

 method of preserving spiders that have much colour, I should feel myself 

 much obliged. — C.Lambe. May 6. l?,29. 



Spiders on Chestnut Timber. — In Wood's Letters of an Architect (vol. i. 

 p. 60.), it is stated that all the timbers in the cathedral of Rheims " are said 

 to be of chestnut, and the proof is, that no spiders are found upon it." 

 What is meant by this ? Will spiders not live on chestnut timber ? — 

 John Brown. Wester oft, near Huntingdon, April, 1829. 



The Zeuzha aefscidi (Vol. I. p. 66.) has been supposed to feed only on 

 elms ; the specimen I have was taken from an ash. The moth lays its eggs 

 on the body of the tree during July or August ; the larvae, on exclusion 

 from the egg, feed at first on the bark of the tree, penetrating the solid wood 

 shortly after. I am not certain as to the length of time they feed, but I 

 have reason to believe it is not until the second summer the perfect insect 

 is excluded. My ideas for this I give : the egg is not hatched before August, 

 and the larva from it becomes torpid by November, and as it cannot in this 

 short time be full grown, it commences feeding the following spring, and per- 

 fects itself during the summer. Before winter it spins a web across the orifice 

 in the tree, and remains in this state until a month and a few days previous 

 to its appearance as a perfect insect, when it assumes the chrysalis form. Its 

 extrication from the tree is perfectly easy. In the chrysalis state every seg- 

 ment of the body has a row of sharp short spines, which enables it to shift 

 itself along the passage it has made by the motion of its body, the spines 

 acting as levers against the sides of the hole. By these means it soon 

 reaches the entrance from the exterior of the tree, which takes place a few 



hours before the developement of the per- 

 fect insect. The drawing {fig.79.) is of the 

 natural size ; my specimen, being a female, 

 is large. It is furnished with powerful jaws, 

 and has a hard brown shield on the top of 

 the first segment of the body, within which 

 it can entirely withdraw its head. The last 

 segment of the body is furnished with a 

 similar hard shield. The drawing of the 

 wood is the full size. Another larva, found 

 at the same time, had been the cause of its own destruction, the tree on 



