Miscellaneous. 405 



herself by a line to tlie box she was in. In the middle of the sum- 

 mer, however, they began to line the whole of the inside of their 

 cage with fine whitish web, not quite so close as the web of a house- 

 spider. They then each made a white cocoon (this was about 

 the middle of July), about the size of a damson-stone, which they 

 kept jealously under their bodies, carrying it about with them where- 

 ever they went ; and one of them shut herself up for a day or two in 

 a kind of den, which she wove in the corner of her cage, but soon 

 cut her way out again, to get food, I conclude. About the 1st of 

 September the eggs in both the cocoons appear to have been hatched; 

 but I did not see the young ones till they were some ten or twelve 

 days old ; and when I first observed the mothers after this event, 

 their abdomens had the appearance of being covered with a thick 

 brown moss, which, when examined with a lens, proved to be a col- 

 lection of some fifty young spiders, holding on to the mother, with 

 their heads downwards and their legs and abdomens sticking out. 

 Now (the 1 7th of September) they have evidently much increased 

 in size since they were hatched ; and I am puzzled to think what 

 they have had to eat — whether they have derived any sustenance from 

 the mother herself, or whether they have devoured each other, which 

 latter I think highly improbable ; neither do I think that they take 

 any part of the food given to the mother (for the old ones still con- 

 tinue to feed on bluebottles rather largely) . The handsome appear- 

 ance of the mothers has certainly very much fallen off since they 

 were first taken ; and this, in conjunction with the fact of the young 

 ones adhering so closely all round the abdomen of the mother, would 

 rather incline one to suppose that they receive some nourishment 

 thereby. 



" For the last two or three days, the young spiders have got very 

 restless, and several of them have left the mother, to wander about 

 the cage." 



I am, Gentlemen, 



Your obedient Servant, 



Sept. 22, 1863, James Yate Johnson. 



On a Sternothaerus /?-om Central J/rica. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c. 



Dr. Kirk has just presented to the British Museum a living spe- 

 cimen of a young Sternothcerus from the river Shire, near the Mur- 

 chison Rapids, in the Zambezi. 



It appears, from the small temporal shields, to be the young of S. 

 sulniffer ; but it differs so much from the adult specimens of that 

 species as to be worthy to be described. 



Shell oblong, rather shelving on the sides, with a sharp inter- 

 rupted dorsal keel, more prominent and formmg tubercles behind. 

 It is blackish olive and black beneath, with a large central white 

 blotch occupying the greater part of the sternum. 



The dorsal and marginal shields have a rather large, rugose, sub- 

 posterior areola, with very numerous regular radiating grooves, and 

 a few distinct concentric grooves near the margin. The first vertebral 



