149 



prove, or vice versa, as maintained by Milne-Edwards." It is very 

 agreeable to see this question again brought under discussion, and 

 many will take deep interest in the argument who may not altogether 

 coincide in the conclusion. 



3. " Descriptions of Two newly-discovered Species of Arachnida. 

 By John Blackvvall, F.L.S." These are Ciniflo humilis, of the tribe 

 Octonoculina and the family Ciniflonidae ; and Neriene afBnis, of the 

 same tribe and the family Linyphiidie : both were discovered by Mr. 

 Meade, the former in Buckinghamshire, in August, 1854 ; of the latter 

 two adult males have been taken, one in the vicinity of Burton-on- 

 Trent, the other at Hornsea, near the east coast of Yorkshire. 



TJie ' Zoologist: 



The ' Zoologist,' as usual, has contained a variety of miscellaneous 

 and interesting matter. One of the subjects seems to have excited 

 unusual interest — the question whether there are one or two broods of 

 Gonepteryx Rhamni in the year : there has been a regular passage of 

 arms between the observers and the logicians on this qu<estio vexata, 

 all the contributions of the former tending to show that it is single- 

 brooded, all those of the latter clearly demonstrating that it ought to 

 he double-brooded : the logicians in the end appeared to yield to the 

 observers. Such discussions may possibly be carried too far, and the 

 real question at issue lost in a fog of words ; but there can be no doubt 

 that facts are elicited by the open avowal of opinions, and, however 

 opposite these may appear, the truth-seeker generally obtains his end 

 through the medium of free and good-humoured controversy much 

 more readily than by adopting positive statements put forth with 

 every appearance of infallibihty, although copied from time innnemo- 

 rial from authors of the best repute. Mr. Stainton has continued his 

 Entomological Botany, five interesting portions of which have ap- 

 peared. The Rev. Hamlet Clark and Mr. John Curtis have published 

 papers on the British carnivorous water-beetles ; the former with a 

 view to a future Monograph ; the latter recording habitats observed 

 in the earliest days of his entomologising. Neither of these papers 

 makes any addition to our list of British species. Mr. Wollaston has 

 made known three Coleopterous insects new to the British Fauna ; Hv- 

 droporus elongatulus of Sturm, discovered by himself on Midgley Moor, 

 Yorkshire; Homalota cambrica of Wollaston, also discovered by 

 himself in North Wales ; and Corticaria borealis of Wollaston, first 

 discovered by Mr. Darwin, and subsequently by Hardy, on the coast 



