Page:Hardwicke's Science-Gossip - Volume 1.pdf/167

pleasant spot to work in; for it is full of water, and there is a ghostly reminiscence of a man having drowned himself there.

As to the age of the Petherwin beds, whether they are Upper Devonian or Lower Carboniferous, we leave wiser heads than ours to determine. Our aim in this little sketch has merely been to while away half an hour by showing them to you.

Exeter.Frank P. Perkins.

About a week ago I happened to be wandering round the garden situated at the back of the house in which I reside. The sun was shining brightly, and in every direction threads of gossamer floated through the air, whilst other threads were stretched like fairy clothes-lines from the plants to the palings, and from thence to the bean-sticks in the adjoining garden. Observing that the threads were in much greater numbers at the lower end of the garden, induced me to commence a hunt in order to discover the spinners. A brief search soon disclosed their retreat. Clustered together like a swarm of bees were at least 300 of the tiniest spiders I ever saw. A general panic was the immediate result of my touching them. "One and all," they scampered off over the large web on which they had assembled. Some wisely endeavoured to hide under the leaves, others either fell or threw themselves from the web, and hung suspended by a delicate thread.

I captured a few of the flying host; then holding them on my hand, observed a filament of web rapidly jerked out until sufficiently long to sustain the little fellow; when away he went, ascending rapidly, until quite lost to vision.

Procuring a wine-glass and placing in it some strong spirit, for the purpose of killing a few of the spiders, to more carefully examine them with a lens, I was not a little astonished, on taking some of them out from the spirit after an immersion of several minutes, to find, as they lay on my hand, the rays of the sun shining on them through the pocket lens, that the little victims still had life. First a feeble kick with one leg, then another performed with two a trifle stronger; a third and fourth; and so on, until they marched away not even tipsy, as free from harm as if they had lived in spirit for a lifetime.

The spiders were the young of the garden spider (Epeira diadema). I relate the fact, as I was not aware the young of the Epeira ever floated about on their webs, a habit I imagined peculiar to a particular species; neither did I know a young spider could bear soaking in strong spirit for several minutes without causing its death. Perhaps, sir, some reader can tell us more about gossamer spiders.

A. K. speaks of this moth as being "very numerous on a chalky spot above the undercliff," in the Isle of Wight. By the way, it is the true Six-spot Burnet, known to science as Anthrocera filipendulæ, and F. M. is right in so naming it.

This pretty little moth was very abundant last summer, not only in situations as observed by A. K., but in the fields, by the wayside, on the hedges and on and around every flowering plant that bordered the paths along the cliffs from Ventnor to Niton, and thence along the road to Blackgang. Nor were they less numerous on the heights above the undercliff; for in addition to the multitudes that fluttered across our path, every blossom was crowned with one or more of these brilliant insects.

Many specimens of these lovely moths did I take off the flowers with my fingers, so tame were they, and in every instance they proved to be the Six-spot Burnet, so that I am unable to say if the other burnet moths inhabit the localities I visited.

The Marbled White butterfly, Arge Galathæa, was scarcely less numerous, especially along the meadows between Ventnor and Steephill Castle. Rarely have we witnessed a more enchanting spectacle than the expanded flowers of the thistle, or the purple blooms of the teasel, upon which were seated a Marbled White butterfly or two, and one or more crimson-spotted moths, with occasionally a gorgeous Peacock (Vanessa Io) crowning all with his lustrous wings; while around the whole fluttered many others, eager for their share of the coveted nectar. It is a beautiful sight to see the Marbled White on the wing, and I know of no other locality where this species may be seen in such profusion and perfection as in the waste spaces along the cliffs between Ventnor and Niton. Some of the Blues are met with now and then, but I do not think they are very abundant, while the Heaths and Meadow-browns are as plentiful everywhere as flies in a kitchen; the same may be said of several species of grasshopper, the noise of their stridulation being at times almost deafening. The large green grasshopper (Gryllus viridissimus) is also met with in some parts of the island. One day I came suddenly and very unexpectedly upon a fine specimen of this insect; the creature was resting quietly upon the doorstep of a jeweller's shop, in the main street of Ventnor, and to my surprise he permitted me to take him up by his long legs. After a brief examination of his handsome person, I have him his liberty, although, from his sluggish flight into a garden hard by, he scarcely seemed to appreciate it. There are multitudes of moths in the Isle of Wight, and among them many of the rare crepuscular species; but as far as my own experience goes, I believe the six-spot Burnet to be more numerous than all the others put together.W. H. Grattann.