472 Mr. White on new or little known Aracbnida. 



tubes, or cells made by themselves, and should also describe 

 the nature of these abodes when possible ; whether they 

 wander about without any fixed residence, walking or running 

 sideways ; whether they make a web or threads for entrapping 

 their prey, or whether they are sedentary, constructing close 

 webs, or extending them with regular geometric accuracy or 

 in irregular large meshes*. Spiders are frequently found in 

 a very perfect state in several of the nests of the fossorial 

 Hymenoptera. Mr. Abbot mentions, in the notes accompany- 

 ing his unpublished drawings of Georgian Annulosa, that 

 Pelopcei are the best spider-collectors he ever met with, and 

 save the arachnologist a great deal of trouble, as he has fre- 

 quently found, in the nests of these insects, species he has 

 been unable to meet with elsewhere, — the specimens in the 

 most beautiful condition, as the Spider-wasps do not kill, 

 but in some way paralyse with their stings the destined food 

 of their young ; and were British arachnologists to look into 

 the nests of our native Pompili, "rare captures'^ might often be 

 made. As the note alluded to is very interesting, I transcribe it 

 here verbatim from the original in the British Museum. Those 

 who have consulted Walckenaer^s first volume, and know how 

 much science is indebted to Abbot for his discoveries of new 

 species of Arachnida, will excuse its length. Drury (111. i. 

 pp. 105, 106) and Darwin (Journal of Researches, p. 40) 

 mention similar instances. ^^ Sphex lunata. Fab. [Pelopoius 

 lunatus, Fab. Syst. Piez.), called in Savannah Black and Yel- 

 low Mason, and likewise Dirt-daubers : they make oblong 

 cases of clay, which they plaster in layers to roofs, ceilings, 

 and other convenient places ; when finished they lay an egg 

 inside at the end, then fill it with spiders and plaster them 

 up. The worm (larva), by the time it eats them all, is full fed, 

 and spins round itself a thin case like gold beater's skin, in 

 which it changes into chrysalis ; it begins to build in May and 

 continues all the summer. What is remarkable, they have the 

 art to embalm these spiders alive, or rather enchant them. 

 Upon opening one, the spiders are alive, but unable to walk or 

 make the least resistance, being just able to move a little, 

 sometimes a leg, and they appear plump and (of a) fresh co- 

 lour. I imagine they do this by stinging the spiders : this is 

 a wonderful property and provision of nature to provide the 

 worms with fresh and proper food as long as is needful. 

 Upon putting some of these spiders in a box, they continued 

 plump and fresh several days before they began to alter. One 



* Remarks of this kind or of a similar nature would often prove ex- 

 tremely interesting, as the Baron Vv'alckenaer has shown that in most 

 cases the family may be ascertained by the habit, and vice versa the habit 

 by the family. 



