OF WASHINGTON. 147 



Slosson, and of one from Nicaragua, collected by Prof. C. F. 

 Baker, shows that the species exists in nature. 



Mr. Banks mentioned having a specimen of the stonefly 

 Acroneurla ruralis (Hagen) in which one fore leg is but one- 

 third its proper size, indicating that this leg had probably been 

 lost and then replaced. This, he said, would furnish the first 

 record in the Perlidae of regeneration of appendages. He stated 

 that in spiders of the family Thomisidag it was very common to 

 find specimens in which one of the legs was of reduced size. He 

 has in his collection, also, a spider of the family Attidae, Dendry- 

 ph antes bifida Banks, in which one front leg is much reduced 

 in size and lacks the spiny armature. This is the first record of 

 the kind in the family Attidae. 



Mr. Schwarz said that during his stay at Cayamas, Cuba, he 

 came across a gigantic net of the social spider Uloborus republi- 

 canus Simon (as determined byMr. Banks). From the excellent 

 paper by Mr. E. Simon* it was to be seen that socialism in 

 Arachnida is of very rare occurrence, and that no case has hitherto 

 been reported from the West Indies, Uloborus republicanus 

 having been described and previously known only from Venezuela. 

 Mr. Schwarz said that he was not prepared to see a net of such 

 gigantic proportions. It occupied nearly the whole crown of a 

 felled tree. Its width, naturally irregular in outline, was from 

 seven to nine feet, its height from five to seven feet, while its depth 

 averaged three feet. The whole structure exactly resembled the 

 figure given by Mr. Simon. The male spiders, easily distin 

 guished by their brown color from the females, occupied one of 

 the lowermost corners of the net. An attempt was made to 

 count the individual spiders or spider webs, but after 200 speci 

 mens were counted the attempt was abandoned. Mr, Schwarz 

 estimated that upward of 1,000 specimens were the occupants of 

 this structure. The whole net formed a most perfect trap for all 

 insects that flew through the clearing made by the felled tree, 

 and the individual webs of the spiders were found to be full of 

 insects of all kinds, but more especially of various Diptera which 

 are common in Cuba during the winter months, viz., one or two 



"Voyage de M. E. Simon au Venezuela (Decembre iSSj-Avril 1888) ne 

 Me*moire (i ). Observations Biologiques sur les Arachnides. By Eugene 

 Simon. Ann. Soc. Ent. France, LX, pp. 5-14. pis. 1-4, 1901. 



