474 Notices in Natural History. [Oct. 



VIII. — Notices in Natural History. By Lieut. T. Hutton, Z7th N. I. 



The commencement of the rainy season is the period of vital activity among 

 the insect creation : their rapid and prolific increase presents some of the most 

 astonishing facts among the wonders of nature ; it seems as if every avenue of 

 comfort and health would be choked up and destroyed by the millions which 

 crowd into existence ; but means are wisely ordained to preserve each link of the 

 chain of nature in equilibrium with the rest : thus beasts prey upon beasts, birds 

 on birds and on insects, and these upon other species, so that the various tribes of 

 living beings are kept within the limits which the purposes of their creation 

 require. I will adduce a few instances of this amazing increase which have just 

 fallen under my view. 



1. Ova of the Spider. 

 A lad, whom I employ to bring specimens for my museum, brought me a small 

 white ball, about the size of a pea, which proved to be the silky bag with which 

 some spiders envelope their ova. It was closely constructed of silky threads, 

 strongly interwoven, and glazed on the exterior, for the purpose probably of 

 guarding against moisture. At first sight, its contents appeared to be small white 

 eggs, but on closer inspection, I found them to be young spiders seemingly fully 

 formed, at least as far as I could determine with a tolerable magnifier. — I then 

 took a needle, and drew them forth one by one to the surprising number of three 

 hundred and ten living spiders* 



What numbers of insects must be destroyed to furnish this vast increase with 

 food, while they themselves will in turn fall a prey to birds, &c. before the period 

 of ovipositing shall again arrive ; and immense as the increase from one pair of 

 spiders appears, yet having aided in keeping other families within their proper 

 limits, perhaps not one in a hundred will survive to perpetuate the race. 



2. The Scorpion. 

 The second instance I shall notice was a scorpion — Scorpio Afer ? Pecten 

 with 15 teeth ; eyes 8 ; colour dark bottle-green ; legs and poison sack dirty 

 straw-colour ; clasps or forceps tuberculated — length 3f inches. 



The above was dug out of a hole in the ground ; it had ten young ones clinging 

 about it ; these were a quarter of an inch long, and perfectly white, very soft, and 

 the sting not perceptible througha magnifier, although the poison sack was formed 

 —the point, where the sting should be, being quite obtuse in the whole of the 

 young ones. 



3. Fresh-water Crab. 



The third and last instance which I shall at present advert to, was a fresh*. 

 water crab, which I found in a small hole, apparently that of a mouse, at the 

 foot of a tree, and which for the present I have referred to the genus Thelphusa, 

 Lat. 



This had the two exterior antennae placed at the base of the ocular peduncles ; 

 jaw feet covering the mouth ; legs 8 ; forceps of equal size nearly, with a spine 

 on the second joint ; shell cordiform, and truncated posteriorly, slightly wrinkled 

 on the side with a short spine anteriorly, near the eyes ; colour greenish or livid 

 grey above, dirty white beneath : a mark in form of an impressed X on the back, 

 and two rows of small white spots placed in parallel lines at the anterior part of 

 the shell, viz. two spots in the first line and four in the second, thus #*#***. Oa 

 lifting the ventral plate, if I may so term it, in which the ova are found, I count- 



