34 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
cocoons had their apices turned towards the point of exit; the 
females emerged from the larger hole, and there was a similar 
arrangement of the four cocoons; this is more clearly shown in 
figs. G, H, K and u of the plate. He described the species under 
the name of Cryptus bombyci. . 
The habits of the Crypti have already been so fully referred 
to that little further remains to be said. We have not confirmed 
Curtis’s remark that C. signatorius “ resisted the fumes of sulphur 
longer than any other insect that has come under my observa- 
tion” (Brit. Ent., 668), either in this or any other species. The 
stinging powers of C. obscurus have been called attention to 
(Entom. xi. 35). The twice-recorded observation that C. cimbicis 
has been bred from a cocoon which had produced the perfect 
Trichiosoma requires further elucidation (Westwood, Trans. Ent. 
Soc., Lond., 8rd ser., vol.i., p. Ixxxvii; Bridgman, Entom. xi. 
135). I’. Boie’s remark, on v. Winthem’s authority, that 
C. viduatorius can run on the surface of water like a Hydrometra 
(Stett. Ent. Zeit., xvi. 94), is also perhaps worthy of note. 
Ratzeburg instances a remarkable case of accelerated metamor- 
phosis: on June 4th, 1848, his wife collected a pupa of Tortrix 
ribeana, in a rolled apple leaf, to which an Ichneumon egg was 
attached; the larva appeared on June 7th, and spun up on the 
14th, while a Cryptus porrectorius (assertorius) emerged on June 
24th. This is very different to what he records of C. echthroides, 
and what we now know of Mesostenus obnoxius. Bouché describes 
the larve and cocoons of C. titillator, C. peregrinator, and his 
C. emphytorum (Naturg. der Insekten., pp. 142, 148). Brischke 
gives two species of Cryptus as hyperparasitic, viz. :—C. nubecu- 
latus, as bred from an Hxetastes cocoon; and C. titillator, as bred 
from the cocoons of Campoplex pugillator (Deutsche Ent. Zeits., 
Xxl1. 286). 
Crypti are recorded as bred from four orders of insects, and 
from various spiders’ nests. The following list refers to our 
known British species, but, from the extreme difficulty of correct 
identification of the species, many records must be taken cum 
grano salis. 
J. viduatorius, /abr. from Eupithecia oxycedrata* ; (Goosens) Giraud. 
Nonagria typhe?; Boie. 
3.? erythropus, Gr. ,, © Emphytus cinctus; Wilson. 
4. spiralis, Moure. »,  Talsporia pseudobombycella; Siebold 
