d2 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



The mother mud wasp after building a cell crammed into it a number of spiders 

 which she had paralyzed with her sting. Having provisioned her nest she laid an egg in 

 it. The business of the larva that hatched from this egg was simply to make a long 

 feast on the fresh food stored up for its use. But Walsh tells us that the larva is not in 

 every case left undisturbed in this pleasing occupation. An ichneumon-fly {Cryptus 

 Juncus, Cress) sometimes pierces the wall of a cell and ejects an egg, the larva from 

 which proceeds to dispose of the I'ightful occupant. Commenting upon this Walsh 

 says : " Thus the spider preys upon flies, the mud-dauber upon the spider, and the 

 ichneumon-fly upon the mud-dauber. ' Kill and be killed ; eat and be eaten." This is 

 the great universal law of nature." "American Entomologist," Vol. 1, p. 137. 



I do not like to dismiss our friend Ptinus fur without further notice. He is small 

 but he likes high living. He is a fellow of wonderful appetite ! I think he outdoes in 

 that respect the famous ostrich which indulged in ten-penny nails and broken bottles, or 

 the African chief who despoiled a party of travellers of their supplies and was seen to 

 eat up a pot of blister salve. It affects the dried specimens in our cabinets seasoned with 

 oxalic acid and verdigris. Curtis found it eating an old coat; and it has been known 

 to thrive on such gentle stimulants as Nux vomica and capsicums. 



Not only are spiders exposed to dangers from without, — sometimes they suffer 

 from " terrors witliin." The hair-snakes have been known to make use of them as 

 hosts. 



Hair-Snakes 



are plentiful in the Province of Quebec. The most common of them is Gordius varius. 



The Rev. E. A. W. King, of Waterville, obtained a worm ot this species, and placed 

 it in a dish of water, that he might observe its motions. In a short time it commenced 

 to lay its eggs. They were in the form of a white thread, many inches long, which was 

 gathered into a loose tangle, and through and about which the worm entwined itself, as if 

 to hold it in safety. He did not wait for the eggs to separate and hatch, but consigned 

 the string and the mother worm to a bottle of alcohol. 



I have obtained a male Gordius from a larva of ZarcBa Americana,, and a White Hair- 

 snake 10 inches long from a Lepidopterous larva, that in length, was but an inch and a 

 quarter. The creature lay closely curled — like the spring of a bird-trap — under the skin 

 of its victim. 



Hair-snakes are often met with in strange places. A' lady in Montreal, feeling 

 thirsty in the night, took a glass a'nd filled it from a tap in the bath-room. While drink- 

 ing she felt a tingling sensation on her lip. She paused — struck a light — and to her 

 disgust found one of these creatures in the tumbler. (Moral: Look before you drink). 



I lately heard an advanced version of the old myth of the horse-hair in the water. 

 A gentlemen accompanied a hunter on an excursion in search of moose. The hunter 

 looked carefully into every stream they came to, and, at length, discovering Gordii, 

 exclaimed joyfully, " Yes, moose have been here — here are hairs from them turned into 

 snakes." 



The history of the hair-snake is not yet completed. The adult worm — its form and 

 structure — its nervous, muscular and reproductive systems, have been fully described. 

 Its mouth is said to open upon a gullet which spreads out upon the upper end of the 

 csUular tissue which extends through the whole length of the worm (Dr. Meissner, 

 quoted by Dr. Leidy, "American Entomologist,'' Vol. II, p. 195.) Its food, which has 

 (it should be remembered) already gone through the digestive organs of its host, is passed 

 " by endosmosis from cell to cell " and is completely assimilated. 



The eggs, the embryos, and the newly developed Gordii have all been described. 

 The last have been seen to enter the bodies of the larvse of Ephemera, and have been 

 found in them enci/sted. But, between the notice of them in that condition and the 

 record of the perfect worm, there is a gap in the history. It remains for some careful 

 Helminthologist to fill up the hiatus. It is believed' that the Gordius is one of those 

 creatures that have to pass from one host to another (like the Trichin;B) before they can 



