1^9 (Noveiubcr, 



term Endomycici (rectius Eiulomychki) for the group, as parallel to Carahici, -with 

 subordinate families, EumorpMdce, &c., is possessed of Guerin's types, as well as 

 many of Gerstiicker's, and consequently is enabled to do good service by reconciling 

 those authors' descriptions. lie characterizes as new genera, Heliohletus, p. 41, a 

 tropical representative of Dapsa {H. servilis, sp. n., Borneo), and Aphorista, p. 45, 

 differing from Epipocus in not having the penultimate joints of the antennse inter- 

 nally acuminate, and in its claws being strongly toothed internally at the base (type, 

 Mycetina lata, Gerst.), and describes in all 37 new species. The work is illustrated 

 by a very well executed steel plate by E. W. Robinson. 



Researches in Zoology, illustrative of the Structure, Habits, and Economy 

 of Animals ; by John Blackwall, F.L.S. Second edition. London, John Yan 

 Voorst. 1873. 8vo. 



To the readers of this Magazine, Mr. Blactwall's name will be familiar as a 

 celebrated arachnologist, the author of one of the most magnificent works on spiders 

 that has ever appeared ; but as a general naturahst he may be less known, excepting 

 to those who may have read the first edition of his Researches published 39 years 

 since. The range of subjects discussed, and the minuteness of the observations 

 recorded, show that the author is a naturahst of no common order, — a worthy 

 follower of Gilbert White, — and, as he was in 1834 not a young man, it is rcfi-eshing 

 to some of us to find how enthusiasm for Natural Ilistory can be sustained to an 

 advanced age. 



The portions of the work most interesting to our readers will no doubt be the 

 chapters treating upon tlie means whereby insects adhere to vertical surfaces of 

 highly polished bodies, and tlieir movements thereon, the experiments on the poison 

 of spiders, and the chapters on the flight of gossamer spiders and on the construction 

 of the webs of geometric spiders. Mr. Blackwall's theories on several of these sub- 

 jects have not been allowed to pass unchallenged, and on some of them, especially 

 those respecting the movements of insects on polished surfaces and the flight of the 

 gossamer spiders, there has been much controversy. We do not find that he has in 

 any way changed his opinions. He still maintains that the acrobatic performance 

 of insects on a vertical pohshed surface is owing to the secretion of an adhesive fluid 

 and not to atmospheric pressure, and that aeronautic flight is obtained by means of 

 filaments of web drawn out by cui-rents of air. The experiments on the poison of 

 our native spiders seem to show that it is of no eff^?ct upon man and the higher 

 animals, nor even upon spiders themselves, but proves fatal more or less rapidly to 

 insects upon which they prey. Observations upon the length of life of spiders 

 showed that a little over four years is the probable maximum. With regard to the 

 poison of these animals, we know a recent instance in which a large spider was 

 blamed for having caused temporary pai-alysis in a kitten which was playing with 

 the Arachnid when stricken ; but the evidence is only circumstantial. 



There is a genuineness about the book that renders it delightful reading ; but we 

 think, for a second edition, its tone is a little too antiquated : the quotations from 

 the old writers appearing in the first edition are carefully reproduced, but there is 

 too great an absence of notice of the enormous mass of literature relating to the 

 several subjects published since 1834, and the want of references to the works of the 

 authors who have combated Mr. Blackwall's theories is a disadvantage to tlie inde- 

 pendent reader. 



