THE society's heritage from the 3IACLEAYS. 003 



One of the papers sent home duriiig- bis residence in Cuba was entitled 

 "Remarks on the Comparative Anatomy of certain Birds of Cuba, with a view 

 to their respective places in the System of Nature." [Trans. Linn. Soc, Vol. xvi., 

 Part i., p. 149] . But, as remarked in a lengthy review of the paper in the Zoo- 

 logical .Journal [^'ol. iv., p. 483], "of comparative anatomy they contain but little, 

 and appear rather to be designed as prefatory observations introductory to ana- 

 tomical notices which are intended hereafter to be given.'' It was the author's in- 

 tention to examine anatomically particular genera, which were not within the 

 i-each of naturalists at borne; but the supplementary details were never published. 



No papers dealing especially with Cuban insects were published by W. S. 

 Macleay. But among our memorials of him there are thirty-nine water-colour 

 drawings of lepidopterous larvae, from which he may have bred the perfect insects. 

 Besides these, there are a number of pencil or pen and ink sketches of lepidoptera, 

 scorpions, ticks, and mites. 



After his return to England, he contributed a short paper "On some new 

 Forms of Arachnida," to the Annals of Natural History [Vol. ii.. No. 7, Sept., 

 1838] in which he described and figured the types of four new genera, and the 

 type of a new subgenus of Dufour's genus S'eIetio2^s. Four of the species were 

 Cuban, and one Indian. These particular species were selected for their singular 

 ity "out of a great variety of new forms in my cabinet," "in order to prove how 

 little is as yet known of even that part of the class Arachnida which has been 

 the most studied, namely Spiders" ; and thus to enable him to re-define the 

 Order Araneidea. 



Poultun [Essays on Evolution, Chap. viii.. p. 220, 1908] has pointed out that 

 "W. S. Macleay, in his Hor. Ent. alluded to certain cases which are now included 

 under Mimicrj', viz., the likeness of some Diptera to Hymenoptera, and inter- 

 preted them, together with many other resemblances of structure and life-history, 

 by the principle of Analogy, as distinct from Affinity in Nature [Pt. ii., p. 365]." 

 In the paper above referred to, W. S. Macleay described an Indian spider, in ap- 

 pearance resembling an ant, as the type of the new genus Mi/rmaracline, of which 

 he says : "Nothing is certainly known with respect to the manners of these curious 

 spiders, but I suppose from analogy, that they may eventually be found to feed on 

 ants. It has long been known that the Voluceltae in their larva state live in tbe 

 nests of the Bombi they so much resemble; and I have discovered that the larvae 

 of those tropical Bomhi/lii which have such a bee-like form live on the larvae 

 of the bees they so strikingly represent. Perhaps, in like manner, the object of 

 nature in giving such a striking form to this spider is to deceive the ants on 

 which they prey" (p. 12). 



Only the most meagre record of W. S. Maeleay's experiences as a collector, 

 before he went to Cuba, has come down to us. One cannot believe that the 

 attractions of Combe Wood, "classical ground to entomologists" (Lyell), Wimble- 

 don Common, Battersea Fields, and other favourite localities for the entomolo- 

 gical collector resident in London a century ago, were unappreciated either by him 

 or his father. Probably, too, during his undergraduate days, he may have had ex- 

 periences like those of Charles Darwin about seventeen years later, in collecting 

 insects in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, and in having fellow-students who 

 shared his interest. 



Nevertheless the solitary record of a collecting excursion before he left Eng- 

 land in 1825. known to me, is a casual remark in the Horae Entomologicae (Part 



