220 VARIETIES. 



smooth, hairless caterpillars, care must be taken that their 

 colours be not removed by a too rough application of the 

 absorbing instrument. A specimen of the larva of Cossm 

 Ugniperda, in my possession, is partly divested of its reddish 

 tinge, in consequence of its having been grazed internally by 

 the absorber, a circumstance which shews that the colouring 

 matter of this species lies beneath the surface. 



James Fennell. 



15. Spider. It is well known that there is found, in the 

 palace of Hampton Court, a very large species of spider, 

 called there the " Cardinal." Mr. Jesse, in his delightful 

 Gleanings in Natural History, says, that he has only met 

 with it in that locality, and conjectures that they have re- 

 ceived the above appellation from their having been first 

 observed in Cardinal Wolsey's Hall. Pray what scientific 

 name has been conferred upon this species; is it Hampton- 

 Courtiensis, Wolseyensis, or what ? b 



James Fennel. 



16. Gossamer Spider. — On the 2d of November, I observed, 

 near Wednesbury, in Staffordshire, an unusual quantity of 

 the floating spider-web, commonly known by the name of 

 " gossamer ;" and on carefully examining the ground, I found 

 every object which projected above the level of the field, as 

 bents of grass, sticks, and particularly stones, covered with an 

 innumerable quantity of small spiders. On one stone alone 

 there were more than seven hundred. These gossamer 

 spiders are about a line in length, and black, with the excep- 

 tion of the palpi, which are bright red ; and those of the male 

 at least three times the length of those of the female. 



17. Larva of Tipula. — Near Wednesbury is a field in 

 which are two kinds of soil very distinct from each other ; one 

 is a loose light sand, the other a heavy marly clay. In the 

 spring of 1827 this field was cropped with barley, but the 

 sandy part of it was so completely infested with the larvae of 

 a large Tipula, that, before the end of May, the crop was 



b We are ignorant in this matter, but hope that some entomologist will be so 

 kind as to inform ns. — En. 



