46 



entrapped in smooth holes made with a stick around the hills of corn or other plants in- 

 fested by them. Another plan is to strike a single deep furrow with the plough around 

 the field or garden to be protected, with the land side made perpendicular and without 

 breaks, thus forming a barrier which they cannot surmount and preventing them from 

 entering from the adjacent land. 



Against the climbing cut-worms, vigilance is the main requirement for success. They 

 also feed at night, and many may be picked off the trees after dark, with the help of a 

 lantern. Some other plans have been devised, which are easily tried, and are so lucidly 

 explained by Mr. Riley, that I add his remarks in full : — 



" From the orchard planted upon light, warm soils, they can be driven away entirely 

 by claying the ground about the trees ; a wheelbarrow full is well nigh enough for each 

 tree when spread around its base and as far as the limbs extend. This is the most 

 thorough and lasting. A small strip of tin, three inches wide, carefully secured around 

 the body of the tree, will effectually prevent their ascension ; if the tin is old and rusty it 

 will require to be a little wider. Each night, after the swelling of the bud, an hour or 

 two after midnight a slight jar of the tree will bring every one on it down, when they 

 can be caught in a spread sheet and destroyed. This will have to be followed up till the bud has 

 unfolded into the leaf, after which there is no longer anything to be apprehended from the 

 worm. The reasons why the clay is so efficient, are two-fold : 1st. The worms seem to have 

 an instinctive dislike to crawling over it ; 2nd. In dropping from the tree on to the hard 

 surface they are frequently disabled, and whether disabled or not, they cannot immediately 

 burrow into it as into sand, and they are all the more exposed to their numerous midnight 

 enemies, which are ever watching for them." 



SPIDERS. 

 By the Rev. C. J. S. Bethune. 



[In the following paper, the writer lays no claim whatever to any originality ; he 

 has simply endeavoured to compile from various sources an account of the natural history 

 of spiders that, he trusts, may afford interesting information to the general reader. The 

 books from which he has mainly drawn his information are Emerton's " Structure and 

 Habits of Spiders," (Salem, Mass., 1878) ; Rev. J. G. Wood's "Illustrated Natural His- 

 tory f* Kirby & Spence's " Entomology and Moggridge's " Harvesting Ants and Trap- 

 Door Spiders." The illustrations are all reproductions of the wood-cuts in Emerton's 

 excellent work, for permission to use which he is indebted to the publisher, Mr. S. E. 

 Cassino, of Salem.] 



1 . — Introductory. 



What is a Spider 1 is the first question that naturally arises when we begin to talk 

 about the life-history of the class. Most persons would probably reply at once that a 

 spider is an insect. This is undoubtedly correct in the popular acceptation of the term 

 insect, and also accords with the derivation of the word (Latin — in and seco, I cut), sig- 

 nifying an animal whose body is divided into two or more segments almost entirely 

 detached from each other. Spiders, however, are not true insects, though they belong to 

 the same great division of the animal kingdom called the Articulata. As we stated in a 

 former Report (1872, "Beneficial Insects," page 427), insects are distinguished by the 

 x following characteristics : — 1st. They have their bodies divided into segments. 2nd. They 

 breathe through openings in their sides ( spiracles ) from which proceed tracheae or wind- 

 pipes. 3rd. They have distinct heads, with jointed antenna or feelers. 4th. When 

 adult they have six articulated legs. 5th. They go through a series of metamorphoses, 



