The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-04-01


 them spin repeatedly, observing tf ! whole process from the laying of tE
 eggs to their final concealment by tt l completed silken covering.
 t Huber observed that individuals be 5 lieved to be males were capable of spin = ming; and McLachlan has expressed tn opinion that both sexes spin. The wei
 the latter naturalist remarks, is undis tinguishable from that of spiders; an , he adds that if number of specimen be inclosed in pill box it will be foun at the end of several hours that the in terlor is traversed in all directions b. numerous lines of web. This circum
 stance appears to have been noted als
 by s. F. Aaron in the case of Psocu
 SeXpunctatus, caught near Philadel
 phia and taken home in paper boxes
 It was noticed by Huber that som
 clusters of eggs had in addition to th'
 ordinary close fitting covering anothe
 protection. a little distance above thu
 first, of less close tissue, composed O.
 stronger and longer threads placed par.
 allel. This upper tent was closed on one
 side, but always open on the other; anc
 Huber thought it might serve as 6
 place of refuge for the mother. He
 mentions that the species with spotted
 wings always made for it's own resi-
 dence a sort of web composed of long
 parallel threads Some of the individ-
 uals which thus lurked under a trellis
 of silk were believed to be males. The creatures had space beneath their cov-
 erings to move about little, and they
 could easily escape when they wished
 to do so. According to McCook, Psocus purus in America makes a tubular tent like web in crevices of bark, etc. Un- 1 der this web the insect lives after the manner of a tube weaving spider, and entomologists who wish to capture 1t have to push 1t out by pressing upon the tent. As to the purpose of these lWebs, Huber thinks that the lines may serve to warn the creature of the ap- 1 proach of enemies; but not to protect 1t from attack, for the tents were so frall that gnat might almost break them. It is certain, he adds, that Psocids do not lie in ambuscade, like spiders, for they are not predaceous.
 With regard to the position of the spinning organs, Huber has made it clear that the threads come from the mouth. HeSwas at considerable pains in attempting to establish their exact cource, but found observation difficult on account of the smallness of the flies and the rapidity of their movements. After placing some of the insects in glass tubes and following them with a strong lens, he was inclined to believe Hagen, however, who examined the la brum, found no spinning organ there, and he suggests that it is probably sit- uated in the tongue, structure associ- ated with the lower lip. Burgess has since found within the tongue a pair of peculiar organs-lingual glands, which open by a common duct into the mouth near the throat; and these are thought to be concerned with the spinning work. Other spinning images are found in the family Embiidae, also Pseudoneuropte- "a, a small group of insects of mode rate size, of no popularity, and imper- fectly known even to entomologists. The creatures are said to be related in certain respects to Psocids; but tehy are dissimilar, having perhaps a slight re- semblance to Termitds or white ants, with which also they are supposed to have some relationship. The spinning faculty, though occurring in the perfect insect, Is better known in the larva; and it has been observed, further, in a form regarded by McLachlan as the nymph. The precise period at which 1t is noted, however, is not of great inn portance, for there Is no marked meta the insect having much the same form throughout life. Lucas | +Rx .i.:. tanica are found under stones in small silken tunnels; and similarly those of | Embia solieri are stated by Lucas and | by Girard to be found in similar situa- | tions also in tunnels of silk.
 A box In which some of the larvae of | the first named species had been placed | In 1850 was forgotten till 1858, and when opened was found to have it's walls clothed with fine white silk, forming ! circular tunnels, in which dead larvae were lying, Another Embd, Oligotoma found chiefly In wingless- perhaps larval-condition, in a hot house among orchids was observed by Mr. Michael to have made a large num- per of webs on the roots and stems of he orchids and of neighboring plants. These webs had the form of siken gall cries. Thy were not perfect tubes. but nore of the nature of coverings, pro- ecting the ceatures from above and them to feed upon he sur ace of the plant on which the web ested. One individual spun web on he side of a box in which 1t had been onfined for two hours, and some time .fterward the web had been so much xtended that it attached the lid to the ox. When he lid was removed he in- ect ran about with activity, lever anon etreatng into small, loose silken den r tunnel it had woven for itself at the ottom of the box" A figure of this in- ividual shws small undeveloped wings, o that it had perhaps passed the lar al condition. McLachlan states that ilken tunnels were spun by nymphs as 'ell as larvae of this species; but it has cen suggested that the form regarded S the nymph may have been the adult hort winged female.-Science Gossip.
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