Various Short Notes. 



triangular form, and has, like the snares of the other species, 

 four radial lines (Fig-. 7). It may well be compared, says 

 Castelnau, to the snare of the fowler, for the spider can at will 

 tighten or relax it. This, of course, is a reference to the 

 springing process, a subject on which our author discourses at 

 some length. There is a discrepancy, it will be remembered, 

 between Wilder's and McCook's accounts of this process, as seen 

 in Hyptiotes cavatus ; and we have now to note. that Castelnau's 

 account for Hyptiotes anceps differs from both. When the spider 

 is in position at the extremity of the trap-line, Castelnau says, 

 this line is not attached to the twig- near which the spider 

 hang's, but is seen, on careful observation, to terminate between 

 the animal's first two pairs of feet ; the spider, the while, is 

 attached to the twig- only by the thread which runs from its 

 spinnerets. It is this latter thread, according- to Castelnau, 

 which the spider — clasping- it with the feet of the fourth pair — 

 loops up into a coil, and which she releases (by unclasping the 

 feet behind the coil) when she springs the snare ; in this action, 

 one learns, the spider immediately swings forwards, by reason 

 of her own weight, a distance equal to the length of thread 

 looped up in the coil, and the snare which she had been holding- 

 taut is thus at once relaxed. 







NO TE — DIPTERA. 

 Sphegina clavipes near Grimsby.— Sphegina clavipes has recently 

 been taken in the Grimsby district. — A. Smith, 5, Cavendish Street, Grimsby, 

 1 2th June 1900. 



NOTES— ODONATA. 



Ischnura elegans near Lincoln.— At Burton-by-Lincoln, Ischnura 

 clegans, 'A very small specimen (G. T. Porritt),' was taken by me, iSth 

 June 1898. — J. Eardley Mason, Lincoln, 17th June 1900. 



Swarm of Dragonflies at Grimsby.— At Grimsby quantities of 

 Libellula deprcssa were seen about on the afternoon and evening of Sunday, 

 loth June, probably a migration. — A. Smith, 5, Cavendish Street, Grimsby. 

 1 2th June 1900. 



NOTES— COLEOPTERA. 

 Telephorus paludosus near Grimsby. ^Telephgrus paludosus has 



recently been taken in the Grimsby district. A. Smith, 5, Cavendish Street. 

 Grimsby. I2th June 1900. 



Rhagium bifasciatum on the Summit of Helvellyn. As illustrating 

 how far inserts will fly, 1 found this wood-feeding species on the summit of 

 Helvellyn to-day, weather fine and sunny. It was settled on the lace of the 

 Cough memorial-stone, fully 3,000 feet altitude. W. Pknison Roi iuvk. 

 Keswick, 1 St h June 1900. 



1900 July _•. 



