is | eee THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
from lack of insect food and want of sunshine, so that they have 
not attained anything like the dimensions reached in more genial 
seasons. In September, 1878, the beautiful Hpéira quadrata, 
Clerck, was not only in profusion on our heaths, but many of the 
adult females measured eight, nine, and even ten lines in length. 
On the same spots during the past autumn this spider was 
comparatively scarce, and the largest adult female (out of many 
which I measured) did not exceed four lines, while some scarcely 
reached three lines in length. LHpéira adianta, C. L. Koch 
(perhaps the handsomest of all our indigenous species), was, in 
respect to abundance, the only exception among the spiders of 
this family; instead of being scarcer than usual, this lovely (and 
usually scarce) spider was more abundant than I have ever before 
noticed it. The specimens were quite as large as usual, and not 
much later in coming to the adult state than in ordinary years. 
I cannot give any reason for this exception, more especially as the 
localities in which Epéira adianta occurs are about the most 
exposed parts of our heath district, and apparently little calculated 
to give any extra shelter or food in an unusually cold and 
tempestuous season.—[Rev.] O. P. Campringe, Bloxworth, 
December, 30, 1879. 
Natura Insecr Traprs.—I can corroborate the Rev. O. P. 
Cambridge’s statement respecting moths being found quite dead 
on the blooms of burdock. I have seen Lithosia complanula and 
and L. griseola so more than once, and on two occasions have 
proceeded to box dead specimens of Hremobia ochroleuca from 
these heads; this was excusable, as this pretty moth is so 
frequently found resting by day on the blooms of Centaurea nigra. 
The causes of this singular mortality I had not traced. Burdock 
can scarcely be called an insectivorous plant, but Dr. Darwin's 
work on this subject merits greater attention than it has yet 
received from working entomologists. The why and the 
wherefore of these phenomena should be further enquired into. 
I was much interested in Messrs. Corbin and Druce’s remarks on 
this subject (Hntom. xi. 197, 233); this is now revived by Mr. 
Cambridge’s note. These records are most interesting and 
suggestive, but my present communication leads in rather a 
different direction. I wish to call collectors’ attention to certain 
natural insect traps occurring in the vegetable kingdom. ‘The 
insects caught by the sundews and other “ catchflies” are mostly 
