48 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Drawing of a Spiders Nest. — The Secretary read a letter 

 he had received from Mr. Ogier Ward, enclosing a drawing 

 of a spider's nest, with some remarks thereon by Mr. Charles 

 O. Waterhouse. Mr. Ward had found the nest attached to 

 some long grass in a quarry, near Poissy, on the Seine. 

 Mr. Waterhouse, on examination, found it to be nearly filled 

 with sand, but in the centre he found " a dry, rough, flat 

 piece" attached to the base, which, on soaking in water for 

 some hours, he discovered to be filled with a number of 

 minute spiders, measuring one-twelfth of an inch. The 

 granules of sand were held together and to the inner-bag by 

 fine threads of web. He believed the object of the sand was 

 to prevent the case being blown away, but he was not aware 

 to what species the nest appertained. 



Novemberlie, 1874.— J. W. Dunning, Esq., M.A., F.L.S., 



Vice-President, in the chair. 



Drawing of a Spidei'^s Nest. — The Rev. O. Pickard Cam- 

 bridge sent a note on the curious spider's nest exhibited at 

 the last meeting. It was unknown to him ; and had it not 

 been for a remark in Mr. Ward's letter, implying that the nest 

 he found belonged to a symmetrical (geometrical) web, he 

 should have conjectured that it was the work of an Agelena. 

 If, however, the nest was appurtenant to a symmetrical web 

 it must belong to a spider of the family Epeirides. He did 

 not think the sand in the nest was at all designed as ballast, 

 but as a protection against the heat of the sun (sand being a 

 non-conductor), and also against parasites. Mr. Smith 

 remarked that the mud-coating of the nest of Agelena 

 brunnea did not preserve that species from parasites, as he 

 had often bred a species of Pezomachus from the nests, and 

 he believed, in those instances, the spider's eggs had been 

 attacked before the mud-coating was added. 



Bare British Coleoptera. — Mr. Champion exhibited some 

 rare species of British Coleoptera, namely: — Apion Ryei, 

 taken by Mr. Lilley in Shetland ; Abdera triguttata, from 

 Avienda, Inverness-shire ; Liraexylon navale, taken by 

 Messrs. Sidebotham and Chappell at Dunham Park, Man- 

 chester; Alhous subfuscus, taken by the Rev. T. Blackburn 

 in Shetland ; and Apion sanguineum and Silvauus similis 

 from Esher. 



