Wilder.] 200 



between Sachusa and the Great Salt Basin, seventy miles south of Paita, Peru; 

 a beetle, from the Desert, twenty miles back from Paita, Peru; a serpent from 

 the lowlands, twenty miles from Guayaquil, by Dr. C. F. Winslow. 



September 20. Specimens of Idocrase, from Perry's Farm, Minot, Me., and of 

 Tourmaline, from Hebron, Oxford Co., Me., by Mr. Luther Hills. A male Cory- 

 dalis carnutus, from near Boston, by Rev. Mr. Eddy. A rattlesnake, from Canton, 

 Mass, by Dr. S. Cabot. A Fox, Eagle, Strombus gigas, and three specimens of 

 Cassis, by Dr. A. Coolidge. Sixteen specimens of Diurnal liCpidoptera, from a 

 locality south of San Francisco, Cal., by Mr. Samuel Hubbard. A female 

 Diaphomera femorata alive, from near Boston, by Mr.T .W. Willard. Sixty speci- 

 mens of fishes labelled by Prof. Theo. Gill, from the Smithsonian Institution. 

 Polished glacial boulders from Bethel, Me. by Dr. N. T. True. A Pickerel, from 

 East Lexington, Mass., a specimen of Clytus, from Boston, by Mr. C. J. Sprague. 

 A Rodent, Frog, Lizard and hymenopterous insect, fifteen specimens of Mollusca, 

 two Crustacea and one Myi'iapod, from Zanzibar, by Dr. A. A. Gould. Cast of the 

 Head of John Rouse, an idiot, by Dr. Lyman. A Field Mouse, from Cambridge, 

 Mass., by Mr. Horace Mann. A specimen of Leptocephalus, from Bethel, Me., 

 Mesothemis Poeyi Scudd., Agrion coecum Hagen, A. Maria Scudd., Libellula auri- 

 pennis Burm., and twenty additional specimens of Odonata, from Isle of Pines; 

 Cordulia eremitaScndd., C elongaia Scudd., C Shurtleffii Scudd., C forcipata 

 Scudd., C. lateralis Scudd., Diplax rubicundula, from the White Mountains, 

 N. H., by Mr. S. H. Scudder ; a Japanese Cat, from Jamaica Plain, a spider, 

 from Campton, N. H., by Mr. W. L. Parker. Five larva of Dermestes, by Dr. 

 J. C. White. Skull of Black Bear, from Hopedale, Labrador, Specimen of 

 Labradorite, from near Hopedale, Labrador, by Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr. 



Octoher 4, 1865. 

 The President in the chair. 



Twenty-three members present. 



Dr. B. G. Wilder exhibited specimens, living and pre- 

 served, of both sexes of a large and but little known species 

 of geometrical spider, NepMla plumipes f from the coast of 

 South Carolina, together with silk of a brilliant yellow color, 

 which he had reeled directly from the living insect ; and gave 

 the following account of the species and of the hitherto un- 

 known method of obtaining its silk.* 



* While this was passing through the press I foimd in the Astor Library, New 

 Tork, acopy of a rare Itahan work by R. M. de Zermeyer, entitled "Kicherche 

 e sperimenti sulla setade Rogni," in which is described his process of obtaining silk 

 directly from spiders. But no allusion is made by others, to either the idea or the 

 book itself, which was published about 1800. I find also that in Jones' "Naturalist 

 in Bermuda," 1859, page 126, is described an experiment of the author for ascertain- 

 ing the strength of the silk of Epeira {Nephila) clavlpes, by drawing the silk out 

 of its body. 



