124 



her at about six, a.m., she had made a flat web abont a 

 centimetre in diameter, held by threads extending in various 

 directions to the sides of the bottle (a in the figure). The spi- 

 der stood over this web and dropped the eggs (e) in a soft 

 mass on it. She then spun threads from one side of the web 

 to the other, over the eggs, until they were completely covered, 

 and finished the cocoon by biting away the threads that held it 

 to the bottle. 



This agrees exactly with Menge's description of the cocoon- 

 making of Lycosa piratica. In all his later accounts of this 

 process, in various species of spiders, he says that, after the 

 eggs are laid, the spider drops over them a small quantity of 

 liquid which the eggs absorb, thereby becoming larger. This 

 did not take place in any of the cases which I have seen. The 

 eggs were always laid in a soft and wet condition, the whole 

 mass resembling a drop of jelly, and they were always covered 

 immediately by the spider. J. IT. JEmerton. 



Proceedings of the Club. 



§ 27. Locusts in Miu-Ocean. Mr. Samuel H. Scud- 

 DER exhibited a bottle full of Acridians put into his hands for 

 identification by Dr. H. A. Hagen. They had been sent to the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Cambridge, by Rev. N. 

 H. Chamberlain, accompanied by the following memorandum : 



These locusts came on board the ship Harrisbiirg, of Boston, on the pas- 

 sage from Bordeaux bound to New Orleans, on the '2d day of November, 

 1865, in Lat. 25° 28' North, Long. 41° 33' West, making the nearest point 

 of land 1200 miles off. Tliey came on board in a heavy rain s(juall; 

 the clouds and ship's sails were full of them for two days. 



E. G. WISWP:LL, Master. 



The locusts prove to be Acridium (^Schistocerca) ijeregrinwm^ 

 long known for its powers of flight and destruction in the Old 

 World. The Compte-rendu of the Belgian Entomological So- 

 ciety, No. 44, Nov. 3, 1877, p. 3-5, contains a note upon their 

 a[)pearance in Corfu, in Spain, and even in England. The 

 Corfu swarm was composed of the variety with yellow colored 

 hind wings, and therefore came from northern Africa, where 

 that form is found ; while the Spanish and English swarms were 



