98 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



after paired on an acorn. I am anxious to see them at work puncturing 

 the acorns. As I set out with the sole hope of breeding the curculio, 1 

 paid but little attention to the moths, two or three of which came out but, 

 with one exception, were dead and spoiled when found. — J. Pettit, 

 ( irimsby. Out. 



Ax Intelligent Spider. — 1 was much interested lately in observing 



the ingenuity of a large spider which had constructed his web between a 

 ladder and the wall of an outhouse in my yard. The web was planned 

 on a magnificent scale, the supporting cable ( n the lower side requiring 

 to be at least four feet in length. A piece of thick twine, about eighteen 

 inches long, happened to be suspended to the wall by a tack, at a conven- 

 ient height from the ground, and the spider, noticing the twine, had con- 

 trived to make it form part of the support of the web, by fastening his 

 cable to the end of it. and then pulling it tight. The twine was drawn 

 out almost horizontally by the ingenious spider, who certainly showed 

 something a little beyond instinct in thus taking advantage of circum- 

 stances. — (i. J. Bowles, Quebec, P. Q. 



A New Insect-enemy of Turnips and Rape. — You are perfectly 



aware that I do not possess any scientific knowledge in Entomology, but 

 as you have so laudably set apart a portion of the Entomologist for record- 

 ing facts connected with economic Pmtomology, I know that you will be 

 pleased to receive any trustworthy testimony on behalf of such. Last 

 evening my brother and 1, while walking across a piece of newly-sown 

 rape (Brassica Xapus), discovered that thousands of minute insects — so 

 minute that my pocket lens was not sufficiently powerful to reveal the 

 order they belonged to — were puncturing and feeding on the cotyledons, 

 ( r first leaves ; and so quickly did they spring off that I had to return 

 home for some gum and a sheet of white paper, which, when well gummed 

 and hastily turned over the plant, secured about a score specimens, and 

 these I have to-day forwarded to you in a box, the bottom of which had 

 also to be thickly gummed to keep the little skipping fellows in. Though 

 they may turn out to be the commonest of all known insects, these are 

 certainly new to me as being destructive to rape and turnips ; for, 

 although I have farmed extensively for twenty years. I never noticed 

 them before ; and I think you will agree with me that I do not always "go 

 about with my eyes shut." I know that little pest the turnip-fly, (Altica 

 Nemorum), only too well ; but these appear equally destructive and 



