THE SPIDERS OF EPPING FOREST. 



By FRANK P. SMITH. 



Part /, 



Influenced by the memories of many pleasant days spent 

 within the leafy glades and upon the sunny heaths of Epping 

 Forest, it is with something like a sense of duty that I enter 

 upon the task of compiling a descriptive list of the spiders 

 indigenous to this lovely district. I need in no wise eulogise 

 upon the natural beauties of the Forest, for they must be familiar 

 to every resident in the' northern portion of the Metropolis, and, 

 for the benefit of the stranger, we have more than one good guide- 

 book dealing with the attractions of the neighbourhood. We 

 constantly hear it remarked that for certain groups of insects the 

 Forest is not so remunerative a locality as it used to be ; but we 

 must admit that it would be an absolute impossibility for a well- 

 studied order, such, for example, as the Lepidoptera, to hold its 

 own in a collecting ground within so short a distance of the 

 Metropolis. In many parts of the Forest, too, the London-clay, 

 with its somewhat limited flora, comes to the surface, thus tend- 

 ing to decrease the variety of insect life in those localities. 

 To-day, however, in spite of the attentions of energetic collectors 

 and the depredations of thoughtless excursionists, this district 

 may be relied upon to furnish treasures innumerable for the 

 earnest student of nature who is willing to enter upon the task 

 of investigating those orders of the animal kingdom which have 

 been for one reason or another more or less neglected. Foremost 

 amongst these must be placed the Araneae, or Spiders, with 

 which I wish to deal in the present series of papers. The list of 

 species as it now stands, although in many respects a good one, 

 will no doubt be materially augmented by further search, and it 

 is hoped that these notes may not be regarded as " something 

 attempted, something done," but rather as an incentive to the 

 enterprising collector to avail himself of every opportunity of 

 gathering specimens of spiders in this interesting localitv." I am 

 confident that one of the greatest obstacles to the advancement of 

 British Araneology is the lack of up-to-date literature in the 



I The previous papers on Spiders in our publications are orly two in number, viz. : " A 

 contribution towards a l<nowledge of the Arachnida of Epping Forest " by the Rev. O. Picl<- 

 ard-Cambridge (Trans. E. F. Club. Fo/. iw., pp. 41-49) and "Further contributions " on the 

 same subject, by F, O. Picl<ard-Cambridge, Essex Nat., vol. xi., pp. aiS-Si**- ^"- 



