24 Mr. R. H. Meade on Spiders and their Webs in Coal-pits. 



spider enclosed with the web I determined, on careful examina- 

 tion, to be an adult male of Neriene errans, a small species of a 

 pale brown colour, described by Mr. Blackwall*, which had 

 hitherto been found only among grass, and on rails, in North 

 Wales and in the south of Lancashire. Apparently from its 

 living in a subterranean abode, its colour was more dusky than 

 that of the ordinary terrestrial species, which made me suspect 

 at first that it might be a new, though a nearly allied, species ; 

 but several more mature individuals, both male and female, 

 having been sent to me, at my request, by Mr. Morison, all 

 doubts as to their identity with Neriene errans was removed, 

 both from my own mind and from that of my friend Mr. Black- 

 wall, to whom I submitted them. 



The portion of web which I received was so small, that I 

 thought it possible that masses of filamentous fungous matter 

 might also exist in the mines ; so I requested the favour of a 

 larger specimen for examination. Mr. Morison promptly acceded 

 to my wish, and sent me a mass of similarly blackened tissue, 

 which also I found to be genuine cobweb. Mr. Morison like- 

 wise forwarded (through Mr. Read, of the Pelton Colliery) an- 

 other portion to Mr. Hunt, of the Mining Record Office, who 

 submitted it to Mr. Berkeley for his opinion, which fully coin- 

 cided with my own. 



Mr. Morison says, in one of his letters to me, that when the 

 webs are spun in damp places, they appear, like everything else 

 there, to be dotted all over with a kind of mould ; and he thinks 

 that this, having been examined casually, might have led to the 

 supposition that the webs themselves were fungous growths. 



The mine in which these spiders and their webs were found 

 is called the Pelton Colliery. The seam of coal (part of the 

 " Hutton seam ") averages 4 feet 6 inches in thickness, and is 

 320 feet below the surface of the ground ; about 75 horses and 

 ponies are employed in the mine; and Mr. Morison suggests 

 that the insects upon which the spiders live are conveyed down 

 with the fodder for the horses. He also tells me that "the 

 spiders themselves are to be found in the waste, or parts of the 

 pit not actually at work ; and the webs are generally spun in 

 galleries through which little or no air passes. The spiders 

 seem to be quite gregarious, as whenever a rent has been made 

 in any one of these productions, they may be counted by scores 

 together (so our wastemen tell me) repairing the damage. They 

 seem to be, in spite of their dark existence, very susceptible to 

 light, and the appearance of a lamp produces no small commo- 

 tion amongst them." 



It is an exceedingly interesting fact that a minute spider, 

 * Linn. Trans, vol. xviii. p. 643. 



