311 



SOME BRITISH SPIDERS TAKEN IN 1908. 



By Frank P. Smith. 



{Read November 6th, 1908.) 



Plate 25. 



Although the past year, judging from the experience of co- 

 workers, seems to have been a fairly productive one as far as 

 arachnids are concerned, lack of time has prevented my devoting 

 more than a few days to really systematic field-work. Several 

 friends, however, have kindly submitted collections for identifica- 

 tion, among which were included some species well worthy of 

 record. 



There seems, unfortunately, to be no material augmentation 

 in the numbers of the very small band of workers who are 

 seriously studying the spiders, and whilst this condition of things 

 continues it is not possible to undertake extensive distributional 

 work of any value. The most that one can attempt in this 

 direction is the gradual accumulation of isolated records and the 

 occasional publication of such as may be of possible interest to 

 other workers. A distributional list for the British Isles, founded 

 upon the records at present available, would convey the im- 

 pression that all the spider-population of the kingdom had drifted 

 into abbut a dozen counties. Again, many local lists are very 

 misleading, inasmuch as they are fairly complete in some families 

 but strikingly weak in others. To an inexperienced person this 

 would suggest some interesting local condition which had modified 

 the spider-fauna by favouring the development of certain groups 

 at the expense of the remainder. The expert, however, by 

 glancing down such a list, can usually find a much simpler 

 explanation in the fact that the collector, nob being a trained 

 arachnologist, has simply devoted his attention to one or two 

 methods of collecting — generally "beating" or "sweeping." The 

 wiles of spiders are so refined, and their habitats so diversified, 



Journ. Q. M. C, Series II.— No. 63. 23 



