THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
150 
was genuine spiders’ web, which had 
become blackened with coal-dust; and 
on looking at it through a microscope, I 
found adhering to it numerous scales 
I'rom the wings of moths (apparently be- 
longing to the family of the Tineidte), 
and also fragments of the legs and bodies 
of the same insects. The spider enclosed 
with the web I determined, on careful 
examination, to be an adult male of 
Neriene errans, a small species of a pale 
brown colour, described by Mr. Black- 
wall (Linn. Trans, vol. xviii. p. 643), 
which had hitherto been found only 
among grass, and on rails, in North 
Wales and in the South of Lancashire. 
Apparently from its living in a subter- 
ranean abode its colour was more dusky 
than that of the ordinary terrestrial spe- 
cies, which made me suspect at first that 
it might be a new, though a nearly allied, 
species; but several more mature indi- 
viduals, both male and female, having 
been sent to me, at my request, by Mr. 
Morison, all doubts as to their identity 
with Neriene errans was removed, both 
from my own mind and from that of my 
friend Mr. Blackvvall, to whom I sub- 
mitted them. 
The portion of web which I received 
was so small that I thought it possible 
that masses of filamentous fungous matter- 
might also exist in the mines ; so I re- 
quested the favour of a larger specimen 
for examination. Mr. Morison promptly 
acceded to my wish, and sent me a mass 
of similarly blackened tissue, which also 
I found to be genuine cobweb. Mr. 
Morison likewise forwarded (through Mr. 
Read, of the Pellon Colliery) another 
portion to Mr. Hunt, of the Mining Re- 
cord Office, who submitted it to Mr. 
Berkeley for his opinion, which fully 
coincided with my own. 
Mr. Morison says, in one of his letters 
to me, that when the webs are spun in 
damp places, they appear, like everything 
else there, to be dotted all over with a 
kind of mould; and he thinks that this, 
having been examined casually, might 
have led to the supposition that the webs 
themselves were fungous growths. 
The mine in which these spiders and 
their webs were found is called the 
Pellon Colliery. The seam of coal (part 
of the “Hutton Seam”) averages 4 feet 
6 inches in thickness, and is 320 feet 
below the surface of the ground ; about 
seventy-five horses and ponies are em- 
ployed in the mine; and Mr. Morison 
suggests that the insects upon which the 
spiders live are conveyed down with the 
fodder for the horses. He also tells me 
that “ the spiders themselves are to be 
found in the waste, or parts of the pit not 
actually at work ; and the webs are 
generally spun in galleries through which 
little or no air passes. The spiders seem 
to be quite gregarious, as whenever a 
rent has been made in any of these pro- 
ductions, they may be counted by scores 
together (so our wastemen tell me) re- 
pairing the damage. They seem to be, 
in spite of their dark existence, very sus- 
ceptible to light, and the appearance of 
a lamp produces no small commotion 
. amongst them.” 
It is an exceedingly interesting fact 
that a minute spider, ordinarily living in 
the open fields, should find its way to 
such a depth beneath the surface of the 
ground, and multiply to such an extent 
as to be able to construct, by the united 
labours of hundreds, immense sheets of 
web, stretching through all the deserted 
subterranean galleries. It seems that 
this little creature, at the same time that 
it shifted its abode, must also have 
acquired new instincts, becoming social 
and gregarious in its habits, and thus 
