Arachnida — Insects. 4765 



their continued captivity was therefore determined on. — James Wilson; in ' Witness' 

 Newspaper.* 



Note regarding the Name of the Australian Trap-door Spiders. — In the January 

 number of the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 4561) there is an inquiry, from the Rev. A. Hussey, 

 respecting the name of the Australian spiders which form their habitations in the 

 ground, with a movable entrance. This question cannot be determined, unless speci- 

 mens of the spider itself could be procured and examined by a competent Arach- 

 nologist, which I believe has never yet been done. Spiders which construct burrows 

 in the earth furnished with a moveable lid have been found in different parts of the 

 world, as Jamaica, Barbary, the Island of Naxos, Montpellier and Corsica, besides 

 Australia; and, although a good deal has been written regarding them, authors are 

 not quite agreed as to the names of the species. I may refer Mr. Hussey to the 

 ' Bridgewater Treatise,' written by the late Mr. Kirby, who gives a plate containing 

 figures of the nests constructed by two of these species, which he denominates Cteniza 

 fodiens and C. nidulans: he also gives an interesting description of the construction 

 of the nests or tubes. He refers to a memoir published in the Annals of the Ento- 

 mological Society of France (vol. ii. p. 69), by M. V. Audouin, who mentions four 

 species of the genus Cteniza, Latr. (only a subgenus of Mygale, according to 

 Walckenaer), all of which construct these trap-door retreats. Mr. Westwood read a 

 memoir before the Entomological Society of London in 1840, respecting a living 

 spider, which he received from Barbary, said to possess this curious instinct: it was 

 afterwards publishedt'in the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History' for February, 

 1841, but I have not the volume by me: he referred the specimen to the genus 

 Sphodros of Walckenaer; but the latter naturalist doubts the accuracy of his state- 

 ment, in consequence of all the species of Sphodros with which he was acquainted 

 being natives of America (Walckenaer, Hist. Nat. des Insectes Apteres, torn. ii. p. 440). 

 The Australian species probably belongs to a different genus from any of the others, 

 and Walckenaer says that perhaps it may be identical with his Missulena occatoria, a 

 name given by him to an Australian spider (loc. cit. vol. i. p. 253), with whose habits 

 he was unacquainted. — R. H. Meade; Bradford, February 21, 1855. 



Gonepteryx Rhamni double-brooded. — I am requested by several of my entomo- 

 logical friends to offer a few words in answer to Mr. Newman's remarks under this 

 head (Zool. 4706) ; I should otherwise have considered as superfluous any addition 

 to Mr. Bree's list of authorities and conclusive remarks upon the subject. By applying 

 the terra "double-brooded" to G. Rhamni I endeavoured to convey the impression 

 that, as far as my own observations went, there were two broods of this insect in the 

 year. I did not add any " further comment," because, the same fact having been 

 already noticed by several authors, I was unwilling to trespass upon the good nature 



* Communicated by A. White, Esq., of the British Museum. 

 XIII. 2 H 



