. NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 69 
Several other bred specimens have been received, but either their 
determination is doubtful or the true host is uncertain ; especially 
is this the case with certain Noctue.—Epwarp A. Fircn. 
ZYGENA FILIPENDULZ AND ITS Parasrres.—Mv. Fitch, in his 
note in the January number of the ‘Entomologist,’ under the 
head of “ Mesostenus obnoxius,” remarks that Rogenhofer had 
bred Cryptus fumipennis, Gr., from Z. leta (Kntom. xii. 18). 
T'wo years ago we brought a number of cocoons of Z. filipendule 
from Wotton-under-Edge, and very shortly after most of the 
moths emerged; the cocoons, however, were left in the case 
untouched, when last season there appeared in the case eight 
specimens of Cryptus ‘wmipennis, five males and three females. 
These parasites had remained in the pupa just twelve months. 
They were identified by Dr. Capron. Happy thought! never 
throw away unhatched, though old, cocoons.—V. R. PErkxrys ; 
54, Gloucester Street, S.W., January 15, 1880. 
SpripERS IN 1879.—At page 289 of the ‘Entomologist’ 
(vol. xii.) Mr. Fitch quotes a few words from a paper by myself 
(Zool. 1861, p. 7553), relative to the effects of the wet season of 
1860 upon spiders. The results of my observations during the 
past season (1879) fully bear out the opinion then offered, that 
excessive moisture is less hurtful to spiders than to insects in 
general. I should, however, like to add now a small qualification 
of that opinion, to this effect, that excessive moisture, combined 
with an unusually low temperature and absence of sunshine, is 
exceedingly hurtful to many spiders, but chiefly so to those whose 
life is passed among the coarser kinds of herbage, plants, bushes, 
and trees. Such spiders, embracing the H’péirides, Theridiides 
(genera Linyphia and Theridion), together with a large proportion 
of the Thomisides, Lycosides, and Salticides, have been as a rule 
very scarce during the whole past season. I have (on the 
contrary) found most of the species whose existence is passed 
among damp moss, at the roots of grass, rushes, and débris of all 
kinds, quite as plentiful as usual, even if not more so. These 
damp-loving spiders (principally of the genera Neriéne and 
Walckenderia) are, in general, exceedingly scarce after a dry, hot 
summer, when mosses and other short herbage, together with the 
whole surface of the soil, are parched and often completely 
roasted up. Most of the Hpéirides have not only been very 
scarce during the past season, but many have been almost starved 
