THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 215 



destructive. habits of army-worms are to be referred, but I have 

 a notion that, if the reports from sundry quarters were care- 

 fully sifted, it would turn out that more than one species has 

 to plead guilty of having had, or of still having, a share in 

 these terrible visitations, notwithstanding the almost universal 

 presence of H. arraiger, a circumstance which most likely has 

 caused it to become the scapegoat for all its mischievous 

 relations in the cotton-growing countries of both hemi- 

 spheres. 



The extract from the ' Liverpool Mercury,' for which we 

 are indebted to Mr. Birchall's kindness, is most useful for the 

 comparison of the description of the army-worm, of which it 

 treats with descriptions of the same or similar larvae published 

 elsewhere ; but unfortunately it leaves us quite in the dark as 

 to the locality or even state wherein the said caterpillar 

 occurs : if this desideratum could be supplied it would be a 

 valuable assistance to future inquirers. 



In reply to Mr. Birchall's query (Entom. iii. 167), I may 

 say that although, in the complete absence of reliable data, 

 I cannot refute the statement that this army-worm requires 

 only eight or nine days to be full-fed, I prefer to place small 

 confidence in this entomological "canard" until some trans- 

 Atlantic brother of the net and pin will condescend to 

 replace the vague folklore of the cotton-market, by carefully 

 watching the insect through all stages, and report fully on the 

 same. 



Albert Muller. 



December 17, 1866. 



Habits of Epeira apoclisa. By the Rev. O. P.-Cambridge. 



Mr. Frederick Smith's communication (Entom. iii. 199) 

 on the habits of Epeira apoclisa has interested me very 

 much. As Mr. S. observes, he kindly submitted the nests 

 and young spiders to me, and I had but little hesitation in 

 referring them to that species, E. apoclisa, IValck. In our 

 conversation upon the subject I do not remember Mr. Smith's 

 having stated his conclusion that the young spiders had 

 devoured their parent. I believe I said myself that the evi- 

 dence seemed to prove that the adult spider, the parent, had 



