36 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Putting aside the European forms, which do not appear to 

 occur in America, we have two elongate species and two short ones. 

 Our scale on Q. rubra evidently belongs with the latter. The 

 main distinction between antennatiun and quercitronis is in the 

 antennae, and here we see at once that our form falls in with the 

 former, having the third joint very much longer than 4. There 

 would seem, however, to be a slight difference in the legs. 



On the whole, the evidence so far obtained cannot be said to 

 support the view that the Canadian insect is new, and distinct 

 from antennatiun, though it may stand as a variety. For the 

 present it can be recorded as Lecanium antennatuffi, Signoret, variety. 



PROTECTIVE MIMICRY IN SPIDERS. 



BY F. M. WEBSTER, WOOSTER, O. 



In the concluding volume of his admirable work on " American 

 Spiders and their Spinning Work," page 47, Dr. McCook gives the 

 experiences of Mr. H. O. Forbes, and myself, with two species of 

 spiders, whose forms and habits of spinning webs on leaves, together 

 with the peculiar coloration of their bodies, gives them a deceptive 

 resemblance to the droppings of birds. Dr. McCook tries to account 

 for the phenomena of this protective resemblance, by attributing it to 

 the results of natural selection. 



Now, it seems to me that natural selection, alone, would not have 

 carried the deception so far as seems to have been done in these 

 cases, and I think, away from their curiously arranged web, these spiders 

 are not so deceptive in appearance, and that the spider has itself 

 learned that by remaining in a rigid position on a sheet of web, 

 arranged in a certain way on the leaf, it will be enabled to escape 

 its enemies, and, what may be of almost as much importance, secure 

 a better supply of food. 



To suppose this is jiardly over-estimating the intelligence of these 

 spiders. In my own case, I have thought that the deception might 

 have been due, in part at least, to myself, and have often thought 

 that on meeting with it a second time I should recognize it without 

 much trouble. 



The Doctor has apparently overlooked the fact that Mr. Forbes 



