THE BRITISH SPIDERS OF THE GENUS LYCOSA. 



By Frank P. Smith. 



{Read November lGth, VMM).) 



Plates 1 — 4. 



Is publishing this short paper on the genus Lycosa, I am 

 doing so in the hope that it will prove of service not only to 

 the advanced araneologist for purposes of reference, but to the 

 beginner who niu>t, at some time or other, have felt the want 

 of a list of spiders giving the more important synonyms and 

 specific characters in a concise form, and also figures of the most 

 striking structural peculiarities. Many years of work with the 

 Araneae has convinced me that a gnat deal of the neglect which 

 this group has suffered at the hands of students of natural 

 science is attributable to the fact that the available literature 

 Lb far from being either sufficient or convenient. Obviously, a 

 beginner cannot work from a list pure and simple, and beyond 

 such there is little araneological literature in the English language, 

 except two important works dating back to 1801 and 1879 

 respectively, and a few scattered papers dealing chiefly with 

 rare and little-known species. 



Personally, I consider it altogether a mistake to suppose that, 

 for practical purposes, an elaborate monograph is a necessity, 

 or even, by itself, a convenience, at any rate to the beginner. 

 I do not refer so much to the awkwardness attendant upon the 

 handling of large and ponderous volumes when one is working 

 amongst a congested array of specimen jars, optical appliances, 

 and, worst of all, saucers of spirit, although this is a matter 

 well worthy of consideration. I refer more particularly, 

 however, to an aspect of the matter which often escapes 

 attention. A monograph contains — or, at any rate, should 

 contain — full and complete descriptions of all those species with 

 which it professes to deal ; and it should be the aim of the 

 author, although obviously a line must be drawn somewhere, 

 to make the descriptive matter as detailed as is consistent with 

 practicability. Similarly, in the case of species described as 



