4800 Entomological Society. 



this species from the latter place, being the only British specimen of that sex hitherto 

 captured. 



Mr. Edward Sheppard exhibited three specimens of Drypta emarginata, found 

 by Mr. Arthur Adams under a tuft of grass near Portsmouth, but about two miles 

 inland. 



Mr. Stainton exhibited a number of very accurate drawings of the transformations 

 of Micro-Lepidoptera, made by Herr Grabow, of Berlin, among which the most 

 interesting was that of Asychna aeratella, which feeds in a pod-like excrescence which 

 it appears to form on the shoots of Polygonum aviculare, in autumn. 



Mr. Hunter exhibited a female Stauropus Fagi, recently taken at Black Park, and 

 also the young larvae about thirty-six hours old, produced from eggs laid by this 

 specimen. 



Anommatus and Langelandia. 



The President stated, with reference to the communication made by him at the 

 last Meeting from Mons. Charles Delarouzee, that he had recently been informed by 

 that gentleman that the water-butt alluded to was sunk in the eanh to the depth of 

 three feet, which would account for his having found the insects then mentioned three 

 feet below the surface; he added, that he had no doubt, by searching in similar situa- 

 tions in this country, we might discover both Anommatus and Langelandia. 



Observations on the Habits of two species of My gale. 

 Under the above title, Mr. Smith read the following notes, by Mr. H. W. Bates : — 



"With regard to spiders, there is one observation I made, which T am sure will be 

 of the highest interest to Science : it is with respect to the habit of the genus 

 Mygale to prey on birds. Now, I have detected them in this fact as far back 

 as 1849, but thought little of it at the time, as I had the idea that it was a well-known 

 and undisputed fact in Science. Lately, however, I read an account (T think, 

 in ' Langsdorffs Expedition in the Interior of Brazil'), where the fact is considered to 

 rest on no foundation, and to be one more of the fables originated by Madame 

 Merian. 



" Now, I will relate to you what I saw in the month of June, 1849, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Cameta; I was attracted by a curious movement of the large gray-brown 

 Mygale on the trunk of a vast tree : it was close beneath a deep crevice or chink in 

 the tree, across which tflis species weaves a dense web, open for its exit and entrance 

 at one end. In the present instance the lower part of the web was broken, and two 

 pretty small finches were entangled in its folds ; the finch was about the size of the 

 common siskin of Europe, and I judged the two to be male and female; one of them 

 was quite dead, but secured in the broken web ; the other was under the body of the 

 spider, not quite dead, and was covered in parts with the filthy liquor or saliva exuded 

 by the monster. I was on my return from a day's excursion by land at the time, with 

 my boxes full of valuable and delicate insects and six miles from my house, and 

 therefore could not have brought the specimens home, even if I had wished, which I 

 did not, as the spider was a very common species, easily to be procured nearer home. 

 The species I cannot name; I sent several line specimens, stuffed, to London, 

 in 1851 ; it is wholly of a gray-brown colour and clothed with coarse pile. Doubtless, 

 you will immediately know the exact species to which I refer. 



