THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. XI. 



SEPTEMBER, MDCCCXLI. 



Price 6d. 



Art. 'KKKYI.— Anali/tical Notice of the 46^/j Number of the 'Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History^ dated August^ 1841. Lon- 

 don : Richard and John E. Taylor. 



Art. XLVIIT. — Descriptions of new or little known Arachnida. By 

 Mr. Adam White, Assistant in the Zoological Department of the 

 British Museum. 



The author has received the whole of the collection of Arachnida 

 formed by Mr. Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle, also others 

 collected by Mr. Gunn in Van Dicman's Land, Mr. Bracy Clark in 

 Switzerland, and Mr. Guilding in St. Vincent's ; and the new species 

 contained in these collections it is the object of the present paper to 

 describe. In noticing the singular economy of certain fossorial Hy- 

 menoptera in storing up spiders for their future progeny, Mr. White 

 quotes the following interesting observations from the MS. notes of 

 Mr. Abbot, now in the British Museum. 



" Sphex lunata, Fab. (Pelopseus lunatus, Fab. Syst. Piez.), called in Savannah 

 Black and Yellow Mason, and likewise Dirt-daubers : they make oblong cases of clay, 

 which they plaster in layers to roofs, ceilings, and other convenient places ; when fi- 

 nished they lay an e.^^ inside at the end, then fill it with spiders and plaster them up. 

 The woim (larva), by the time it eats them all, is full fed, and spins round itself a thin 

 case like gold-beater's skin, in which it changes into chrysalis ; it begins to build in 

 May and continues all the summer. What is remarkable, they have the art to em- 

 balm these spiders alive, or rather enchant them. Upon opening one, the spiders are 

 alive, but unable to walk or make the least resistance, being just able to move a little, 

 sometimes a leg, and they appear plump and (of a) fresh colour. I imagine they do 

 this by stinging the spiders : this is a wonderful property and provision of nature to 

 provide the worms with fresh and proper food as long as is needful. Upon putting 

 some of these spiders in a box, they continued plump and fresh several days before 

 they began to alter. One fly continues to build several cells alongside and upon each 

 other: they destroy an amazing number of spiders ; they commonly put all or the most 

 part of one particular species together in one cell, many of them of very rare species, 

 and such I imagine must live chiefly on the tops of branches of the loftiest trees, as I 

 could never afterwards meet with these specimens of spiders. Upon opening several 

 of these cases at once, it affords (as you may judge) a most curious and pleasing siglit 

 — such a large number of spiders of the most beautiful colours and rarest species. 

 Could it be possible still to continue to preserve tliem in their beauty .and freshness, 

 ihey would make a wonderful collection of natural history." — p. 472. 



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