170 IJuly, 



nie.iiis so clear by what incaiis they {prevailed upon the spiders to 

 admit them in the first instance and to tolerate; their subsequent 

 residence, generation after generation, in the nest. That the larvae 

 may be useful as scavengers, devouring the carcases of the older 

 generation of spiders of the community which, Mr. Marshall tells us, 

 die in the passages in the Autumn, suggests itself as a [)ossible 

 explanation of the immunity from attack they enjoy. They may also 

 aid in clearing away the refuse of insect remains which is left in the 

 snare. Beyond this 1 can make no suggestions as to the part they 

 may play in the economy of the society. That they are of some use 

 to the spiders or are furnished with some special means of protection 

 against them is highly probable, unless we fall back upon the 

 supposition that their presence is tolerated through sheer indifference 

 on the part of the spiders. It is true that the moths themselves are 

 agile enough to evade the spiders and can come and go as they please ; 

 but it is surely equally true that the spiders could, if they pleased, 

 kill the larva) at any period of their existence, and the moths also 

 immediately after their emergence from the pupal condition. 



British Museum (Natural History) : 

 May, 1903. 



Scarcitif of Polyommatus argiolu-s near London in 1903. — Tlie gradual return 

 of Polt/ommatus aiyiolus, L., to its old haunts in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 London, which has been closely observed and carefully recorded during the past 

 three or four years, has, I fear, sustained a severe check from the cold winds of this 

 spring. Instead of seeing these lively little butterflies dancing over and around 

 my neighbour's plum trees, as has been the case in May and August of the last 

 two or three years, 1 have this spring seen but a single specimen in the neighbour- 

 hood. This was at nearly the end of iVIay, and it was flying over the shrubs in the 

 pretty little Peckham Rye Park. — Chas. Gr. Barrett, Tremont,Peckham Rye, S.E. : 

 June, 1903. 



On a habit of Uiantkaecia conspersa. — In the course of a few very pleasant 

 days spent last summer in Oxfordshire with my esteemed friend Canon Cruttwell, 

 I was struck, and somewhat surprised, by seeing Dianthaecia conspersa sitting in the 

 day time upon the trunks of trees at a height of from four to five feet from the 

 ground, and quite conspicuously. Every observant entomologist knows that although 

 Dianthaeciee are readily collected in the larva state in seed capsules, and in the 

 moth state at dusk, when sipping the honey from flowers, they are rarely seen in 

 the day time, and that they doubtless conceal themselves closely among herbage ; 

 yet here was conspersa conspicuously visible by day. On one tree there were 

 actually two specimens sitting within a foot of each other ! To be sure the trees 



