8172 



Arachnida, fyc. 



Occurrence of Cyclas pallida in Lancashire. — For the information of conchologists 

 I am happy to record the occurrence of Cyclas pallida (of Dr. Gray) in Lancashire. 

 In September, 1861, I unexpectedly turned it up iu the Leeds and Liverpool 

 Canal, while dredging for Pisidium amnicum, but as yet have been able to get them 

 only very sparingly. The shell is easily recognized, and widely distinct from any of 

 its congeners, and is truly a beautiful addition to the British Cycladidae. — R. Wiy- 

 glesworth ; Maudsley Street, Accrington, August 11, 1862. 



A new British Mi/gale. — I beg to record the discovery of a Mygale new to the 

 British Fauna. The Atypus Sulzeri, recorded by Leach, has hitherto been the only 

 representative of the Mygalidae in the British Fauna ; and the new species is the Dys- 

 dera erythrina of Latreille. I took it on the 19th of July last, from a steep sunny 

 clay-bank ill-famed for adders, near Brighton. It is a male, and is still alive and 

 active. I took it in a lump of crumbling clay containing the tube and an egg-bag, 

 the mouth of which is stopped with the carapace of a spider of the same species. The 

 falces act horizontally ; the eyes are six, placed on a tubercle and arranged horse-shoe 

 fashion, with the opening in front. This Mygale climbs up the side of the bottle when 

 he pleases, and rests for hours, back downwards, on the linen rag covering the mouth 

 of it ; and Dysdera erythrina is evidently a Mygale built for crawling and struggling 

 through the cracks and crevices of loose and dry clay-banks, and for seizing and 

 killing his prey with fangs acting horizontally. — John Robertson. 



Capture of Charocampa Nerii at Hastings. — A very fine female of this rare Sphinx 

 was taken at rest by a labouring man in this town on Saturday, the 2nd instant. It 

 measures 4 inches 4 lines, and is now in my possession. — Robert Kent ; St. Leonard's- 

 at-Sca. Sussex, August 8, 1862. 



Capture of Sesia Scoliaformis. — Referring to my advertisement which appeared on 

 the wrapper of the c Zoologist' for this month, I now add that, besides the specimens 

 there named, I took five more of this species in July, in the pupa state, one of which 

 emerged at 8 o'clock a.m. on the 13th, and the last on the 20th, at 6 o'clock p.m.; 

 another was also taken by my son on the 14th, making eight in all. The only one I 

 saw in the act of stretching on the tree was at 10 o'clock a.m. The larva feeds in the 

 trunks of rough-barked birch trees, and before making up eats its way through the 

 thick bark to the surface, and then spins a tough cocoon. I did not find a trace of 

 one in any smooth-barked tree. — Nicholas Cooke; Spring View, Liscurd, Cheshire, 

 August 7, 1862. 



Larva of Orgyia fascelina. — With regard to your paper describing the larva of 

 Orgyia fascelina (Zool. 8078), I fear your informant must have paid but little 

 attention to its habits. Instead of the insect laying her eggs on the dwarf willow in 

 August, she deposits them about the end of June or beginning of July ; and instead 

 of the young larva hybcrnating amongst the roots of the plant (which, if they did, 

 would be fatal to their existence), they may be found snugly made up in the forks and 

 branches of the willow, iu a thin silken web, with from eight to a dozen dried leaves 

 ol the same diawn together around them. 1 have found in several of these little 



