350 The Zoologist— August, 1866. 



and with a detevmiuation that the mouse shall be the marauder. It appears to me to 

 be a mere quibble to say the spider " was not even seen, much less caught." Nature, 

 no doubt, has given spiilers sufficient instinct to know where to place their webs, so as 

 to procure a proper supply of food, which, in this instance, appears to have been most 

 successfully chosen ; and no one, I think, would attempt to deny that a web a foot 

 square would i)e more " competent for the amount of work required hy Mr. Clo(>!i:," 

 than the mouth of a mouse would be. Had Mr. Birchall taken the trouble to do so, 

 I think he might have both seen and caught ihe spider. Had the wings been found 

 in the mouse's " den," instead of being scattered over the cave as well as hanging on 

 the web, the evidence would be strong against the mouse; but as the description of the 

 case at first given by Mr. Birchall stands, I think the evidence convicts the spider. 

 Out of consideration of the space they would occupy in the 'Zoologist,' I refrain from 

 noticing any more of the numerous contradictious and improbabilities of Mr.Birchall's 

 note. — Stephen Clogg ; Lone, Juli/ 16, 1866. 



Descriptions of Lepidopterous Larvce. By Edward Newman. 



Macroglossa Bombyliformis. 

 The egg is laid singly on the leaves of Scabiosa succisa (devil's bit 

 scabious), on which plant the larva feeds. The larva, for which I am 

 indebted to Mr. Doiibleday, was full-fed on the 20th of July, and 

 rested on its food-plant in a nearly straight position, the anterior ex- 

 tremity scarcely raised, but the legs not clasping its food. Head 

 prone, rounded on the crown, covered with minute warts, each of 

 which emits a short and slender bristle, scarcely narrower than the 

 2nd segment, into which, however, it is sometimes partially received: 

 12lh segment culminating in a mediodorsal horn, which is directed 

 backwards and very slightly turned upwards at the tip : the segments 

 of the body are divided transversely into sections, each of which is 

 beset with scabrous points ; and each point emits a short and fine 

 bristle ; the caudal horn is beset in like manner with scabrous points 

 and minute bristles. Colour of the head pale dull green, the scabrous 

 points being white ; dorsal area of the body still paler green, the 

 scabrous points being white ; there is a narrow mediodorsal stripe 

 slightly darker than the general area, and apparently due to the 

 presence of food in the alimentary canal seen through the skin ; on 

 each side half way between the spiracles and this mediodorsal stripe 

 is a double longitudinal stripe commencing on the 3rd segment and 

 terminating in the caudal horn ; the upper half of this stripe is 

 pinkish purple, the lower half white ; the horn itself being also of a 

 pinkish purple, rather darkest above : the spiracles arc reddish 



