﻿FIELD AND FOREST. l6l 



stroys all kinds of vegetables, melons, &c, even crawling up into 

 peach and fig trees to devour the fruit. The insects are extremely 

 voracious and should they ever occur in large numbers, would prove 

 very destructive, not only in market gardens, but to vegetation gen- 

 erally. Even the little fellows in my breeding cage showed good 

 signs of having sharp jaws and sharper appetites, for in the first few 

 days of their existence they made way with a large turf of rank grass, 

 more than a foot square. On account of their rudimentary wings 

 these insects are unable to fly, their only modes of locomotion being 

 crawling and jumping, which is at best a clumsy performance, hence 

 they are easily destroyed when troublesome, by sweeping into nets or 

 by simply crushing them on the ground with the foot, first jarring 

 them down from the plants, on which they may be found feeding. 



Charles R. Dodge. 



GLEANINGS IN FOREIGN FIELDS. 



The Venemous Spider of New Zealand. — The following 

 narrative of the effects of the bite of the " kapito," a native spider of 

 New Zealand, is given by Mr. Meek of Waimera, in Science Gossip 

 for February : 



It was on the morning of the 24th ultimo, at three o'clock, my son 

 (a man of thirty-one years of age)- was awakened from his sleep by the 

 bite of one of those poisonous insects, and came into our bedroom 

 about an hour afterwards, and exclaimed to his mother and myself, 

 " I am bitten by one of those spiders that the natives have so often 

 spoken to me about, and am full of pain. See, here it is in the bot- 

 tom of the candlestick." I looked at the insect, whose body was about 

 the size of an ordinary pea, and in color nearly approaching to black. 

 His mother on looking at his back, saw the puncture the spider had 

 made, and immediately commenced sucking the wound. I proceeded 

 to the hotel, and obtained the services of Dr. Mohnbeer, when on my 

 return with him to my house, my son was suffering the most excrucia- 

 ting pain in the groin, the virus apparently working its way in that 

 direction. After an application of ammonia by the doctor, the pain 

 shifted from the groin and worked its way up the spine, affecting the 

 arms and chest during the remainder of the day and lasting till the 

 following morning, my son moaning with pain the whole time. On 



