NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 215 



and beauty of colouring is entitled to be placed at the head 

 of its species.* The legs of this kind of wasp are very long, 

 and of a dark chocolate-brown ; it runs very quickly. The 

 wings are a light brown with dark brown tips, and long and 

 powerful ; and the body beautifully mollled with pale yellow 

 and brown. It has very long, fine antennae. It is not an 

 English species ; but probably exists in Spain, the south of 

 France, and Italy. The sj)ider, too, was a rare one : one of the 

 largest Greek hunting-spiders, nearly as large in the spread of 

 its legs as the flesh-coloured tarantula, though without his 

 powerful crab-like pincers. The one I allude to must have 

 covered at least three inches in circumference when its legs 

 were fully extended. It was of a dull mottled brown colour 

 on the upper surface of the body ; very difficult to distinguish 

 from the ground. The lower part of its body was, however, 

 brilliantly coloured, the long legs, or arms, being marked 

 underneath with velvet-like-looking black and white rings. 

 The head, thorax, and abdomen, were of a velvety black, the 

 lower portion of the latter surrounded with a bright orange 

 ring. There is only one error in the account given by you in 

 ' Nature,' that is that you were under the impression I told 

 you that kind of spider was the common prey of that species 

 of wasp. You must have misunderstood me. (1.) 1 do not 

 think that particular kind of spider is sufficiently common 

 for this to be the case. (2.) I never saw a similar conflict of 

 the kind before or after, which, as it was in a room, and not 

 in the grass, where I presume such encounters usually take 

 place, I observed under exceptionally favourable circum- 

 stances. I am certain the spider left no web or thread behind 

 it. I cannot be sure, however, that, as it had evidently been 

 attacked by the wasp before entering my room, a small 

 quantity of liquid may not have exuded from its wounds, 

 which may have helped the wasp in tracking it. 1 have no 

 doubt myself that insects have the sense of smell, and 

 probably much more developed than our own. No one, as 

 you remark, who has sugared for moths, or seen the large 

 SphingidcB hovering over the strongest-scented flower at 

 nighl, or employed a caged feuiale moth as a lure to her male 

 admirers, can, I think, doubt this. If so, let them put a 

 saucerful of honey in a corner of a room opening into a 

 garden, throw open the window, and see how soon the bees, 

 wasps, &c., will be attracted to the honey. There is a 



* The hunting-wasp was, no doubt, a species of the genus Fompilus. — 

 h'. Smith. 



