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THE SPIDERS OF THE WALCKENAERIA GROUP. 



By Frank P. Smith. 



{Read October 20th, 1906.) 



The strict application of the international rules of nomenclature 

 to the genera constituting the Walckenaeria Group has necessitated 

 considerable alteration in the generally accepted arrangement of 

 these small spiders. In the first place the spelling Walckenaeria 

 will have to be adopted, this being the original one, in spite of the 

 fact that Blackwall himself subsequently spells it Walckenaera. 

 A generic name, once published, becomes public property, and its 

 author has no more power or right to alter it than has any one 

 «lse. Viderius, too, is the original spelling of the generic name 

 usually given as Wider la. Simon, in Histoire Natwrelle des 

 Araignees (1864), spells this name both Viderius and Widerius, 

 but the former, having priority in pagination, is selected as the 

 •correct spelling. 



The following synonymic list includes all the species of the 

 Walckenaeria Group which have occurred in the British Isles :- 



Genus Walckenaeria, Bl., 1833. 

 1833. Walckenaeria, Bl., Load. Edin. Phil. Mag. (ad partem). 

 1864. Walckenaerat Bl., Spid. G. B. I. (ad partem). 

 1864. Neriene, Bl., Spid. G. B. I. (ad partem). 

 1867. Micryphantes, Ohl., Die A rack, (ad partem). 

 1869. Gornietdaria, Menge, Preuss. Spin. 

 1870-3. Erigone, Thor., Rem. on Syn. (ad partem). 

 1879-81. Walckenaera, Cambr., Spid. Dorset (ad partem). 

 1879-81. Xeriene, Cambr., Spid. Dorset (ad partem). 

 1883. Gornicularia, Bertkau, Spin. Rheinp. (ad partem). 



1883. Lophomma, ,, ,, ,, „ 



1884. Gornicuiaria, Sim., Ar. de France. 

 1886. Tr achy not as, Dahl, Jfonog. Erig. 



1886. Lophomma, „ „ „ (ad partem). 



1900. Gornicalaria, Cambr., List Br. Jr. Spid. 



The genus Walckenaeria, Bl. (1833), originally included three 

 species — W. acuminata, BL, W. cristata, Bl., and IT. cuspidata, Bl. 



In 1837 cristata was withdrawn by Walckenaer (under the name 

 bicorne, Wid.) and included in his genus Argus. In 1864 acuminata 



