April i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



701 



THE RED SPIDER- -SO CALLED. 



BY A. VEITCH. 



At a meeting of the Society of Florists in Cincinnati 

 one of the speakers is reported to have said, when 

 the subject of plant enemies was imder consideration, 

 " That it is customary to abuse and misuse the weak. 

 This is the case with that small but beautiful in- 

 sect, the red spider. Like other spiders it is carni- 

 vorous and never ate a plant in its life. Micros- 

 copic insects come to live upon the plants and the 

 red spider to live upon them. It is a friend not a foe." 

 This statement we regard as made up of fact and 

 fiction iu about equal parts. It is true the spider is 

 carnivorous and is in no way dependent upon plant 

 food for subsistence ; but the creature referred to here 

 is not a spider, but an Acarus or mite, and lives 

 exclusively upon vegetable products. In zoological 

 classification they both belong to the class Arachnida, 

 but the might is iu the order Trachearia, the spider 

 in that of Puhnonaria. The function of breathing iu 

 the two orders is different. In the mite it is per- 

 formed by air tubes distributed through the body, 

 whilst in the spider the air is admitted by spiricles 

 situated on the abdomen, and which are lined by a 

 membrane plaited into numerous folds, which resemble 

 gills. On these characters is founded the subdivision 

 of the class into pulmonary and tracheary Arachnidia. 

 But apart from all technicalities anyone with a 

 good pocket lens might satisfy himself that the pests 

 of gardeners differ in important particulars from the 

 spider. The head and breast, or thorax, of the spider 

 is connected with the abdomen by a slender cord, as 

 in insects. It has eight eyes, and the same number 

 of legs, besides two short arm-like projections, or 

 palpi, with which to catch and to hold its prey. 

 The body of the mite is not so divided ; is somewhat 

 oval in form and tapering to the head, which is ter- 

 minated by a syphon or sucker, with which to ex- 

 tract the juices of plants. It has six legs, but by 

 undergoing a transformation similar to insects an 

 extra pair is not unfrequeutly acquired. The body is 

 transparent, with dark vein-like ramifications along 

 the back which we take to bo the trachea. The 

 aged females only are red, which may have given 

 rise to the popular name by which they are known. 

 They spin webs, but not so artistically as spiders do, 

 as they seem chiefly designed for nests, or, when the 

 workers are unmolested, convenient residences for 

 large communities ; whereas the web of the spider 

 is not only a snug retreat in times of danger, but 

 a base from which to operate against enemies as well 

 as a snare to entrap unwary flies or other creatures 

 upon which it feeds. New Haven, Conn., 1st, 1885. 

 — Gardenera' 3Ionthly. 



♦ — 



INTER-DEPENDENCE OF RAINFALL AND TEA 

 PRODUCTION IN INDIA AND CEYLON. 



The figures placed at our disposal by Mr. Hogarth 

 shewing the rainfall and tea production on typical 

 properties in India, deserve a more extended notice 

 than we gave them. With some exceptions they 

 shew that the winter months, December to Febru- 

 ary, inclusive, which are generally almost entirely 

 rainless, are blank months as regards tea produc- 

 tion ; while March, in which flushing recommences 

 after the pruning of November and the rest of the 

 cold weather, and even April, shew but small re- 

 sults. The real tea season is the season of summer 

 heat and monsoon rains which extends from May to 

 October. In some cases, as we mentioned, fully 40 

 per cent of the whole crop is gathered in the two 

 months of July and August, the very months in 

 which generally, nearly a similar per centage of the 

 total rainfall occurs. For India, therefore, it may 

 be regarded as an established principle, that the 

 tea harvest is not only in proportion to the amount 

 of rainfall, but synchronous with the laniy season. 

 Here, in Ceylon, owing to our insular position, our 

 proximity to the equator, our place in the tracks 

 of the two monsoons, and the consequent moisture 

 held in suspension in the atmosphere for tho iarfre 



portion of the year, our seasons are not so sharply 

 defined and our^ tea harvest is distributed much 

 more evenly over the year. We should be glad to 

 receive returns from particular properties to com- 

 pare with those from India, but meantime general 

 results may be deduced from the following table of 

 monthly exports of tea from the island since the 

 new product commenced to assert its position in 

 our commerce : — 



