THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SECOND SERIES.] 

 No. 90. JUNE 1855. 



XXXV. — Monograph on the British Species of Phalangiidse or 

 Harvest-men. By R. H. Meade, F.R.C.S. 



[With two Plates.] 



The Harvest-men have never excited much interest among Bri- 

 tish naturalists, few even being aware of the existence among 

 us of more than three or four species ; and this neglect is the 

 more surprising, as from the considerable size possessed by most 

 of them, the facilities for determining their characters are much 

 greater than among many other minute animals which have 

 received far more attention. 



A desire to supply this omission has induced me to make the 

 present attempt to arrange and describe all the British species 

 that I have been able to obtain ; and in doing so I shall endea- 

 vour to give the synonyms of other authors, as far as I can 

 determine them with certainty ; comparing in every instance the 

 specimen with their descriptions and figures, and citing no work 

 which I have not been able to examine. 



On the continent, this family of Arachnidans has excited much 

 more interest than in England. In France, Latreille published 

 a memoir on them in 1802, in the same volume with his 

 ' Histoire Naturelle des Fourmis.' In this he briefly described 

 ten species as natives of France, but his specific characters are 

 short and imperfect, so that it is difficult to identify some of 

 them ; and he fell into the error of confounding together two or 

 three of the most common species. Latreille^s memoir was read 

 at the Institute in 1796 (though not published until 1802), and 

 he must be considered as the first author who endeavoured to 

 revise the Linnsean genus Phalangium. In 1798 and 1799, 

 Herbst published in Germany an elaborate monograph on this 



Ann, ^ Mag, N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xv. 26 



