6898 Insects. 



Pachygnatha Clerckii. Frequent. Under wall, Formby Parsonage. 

 P. Degeerii, Frequent. Among grass and moss on sand hills, 

 and adult males running on roads in spring. 



Family Epeirid^. 

 Epeira quadrata. Frequent. On bushes, &c. 

 E. apoclisa. Common. On plants, &c., at edges of dykes especially. 

 E. solers. Very rare. Among dwarf willows on sand hills. 

 E. similis. Common. In balconies, windows and greenhouses. 

 E. calophylla. Occasional. On bushes and dwarf willows. 

 E. cucurbitina. Rare. Ditto. 

 E. inclinata. Very common. Everywhere. 

 E. diaderaa. Very common. Ditto. 



Tetragnatha extensa. Frequent. Among herbage and low plants 

 in damp places and over water. 



PS. — Those spiders, the names of which are marked with an 

 asterisk, are either new to Science or to Britain. (See " Supplement 

 to a Note on Arachnida of Dorset, &c.," Zool. 6700.) - .^^ 



O. P.-Cambridge. 



Southport, Lancashire, 

 Januai-y 17, 1860. 



On the Functions of the AntenncB of Insects. — Every entomologist must be familiar 

 with the fact that when a molh singes its antennae in the flame it is more or less 

 incapable of directing its flight, and usually spins in circles on the surface with which 

 it may come in contact, with its head downwards. For a long while I supposed that 

 this was a mere expression of pain, until I experimented in various ways with this 

 instrument for the purpose of ascertaining its function. My first experiments con- 

 sisted in the excision of the antennae, immediately above the bulbs, in the male 

 Saturnia Cecropia, as soon as it had escaped from the cocoon, and before expansion 

 of the wings had begun. The circulating fluids exuded, and soon formed over the 

 cut surface a clot, by which it was permanently closed. There was no escape of air 

 from the severed tracheal trunk, nor any indications of respiratory effort on the 

 part of the imago, neither was the globule of fluid taken up through the tracheal 

 trunk. The mutilation gives rise to very little expression of pain after the 

 first shock of the operation, and the imago fixes itself as usual to expand its 

 wings, expansion taking place as completely as in the unrautilated specimen. 

 On the approach of night the mutilated male makes no voluntary effort to use 

 its wings. He is gentle and docile, and permits himself to be handled without 

 betraying a desire to escape or any sense of danger. If at this time one endeavours 

 to compel him to fly, he agitates his wings with a trembling motion ; and if thrown 

 into the air, uses them so ineffectually as not to break the force of his fall, or so as to 

 precipitate him head foremost to the earth, with a shock that appears to benumb him. 

 By persistence he is at last, perhaps, driven to use the organs of flight ; but whilst 



