Spiders Found in the Neighbourhood of Oxshott. 



By W. S. Bristowe.— /?crt(/ March 23);l, 1922. 



I should perhaps start by saying that I do not intend to confine 

 myself entirely to the spiders of Oxshott for two very good reasons. 

 One is that I have never collected there with the idea of drawing up 

 a list, so that many common species occurring there have not been 

 noted, the other reason is that collections have been made in neigh- 

 bouring places, and in many cases there is no reason why these 

 spiders should not turn up at Oxshott as well. Apart from this a very 

 good reason for including a list of Surrey spiders at the end of this 

 paper is the fact that only one list, and that a very incomplete one, 

 has ever been published.* Of the 244 species here given 50 have 

 not been recorded previously, I believe, from the county, and one is 

 new to Britain, the male sex being new to science. More hunting is 

 sure to add considerably to this list. 



It is unfortunate that some of the most forbidding members of 

 the group should so tactlessly enter our bed-rooms at night unin- 

 vited (Tegenaria), for this is one of the chief grounds for the hatred 

 of spiders. It is also unfortunate that the more beautiful forms are 

 hard to find unless sought for in the right way, as the average 

 person judges the whole group by the conspicuous and unpleasant 

 species. By beating gorse at Oxshott, or elsewhere for instance, we 

 may get several spiders not easily collected in any other way. 

 Besides some fat Epeiridae (the family to which the round- 

 webbed Garden-Spider belongs), and " Money- Spiders," included 

 in the family Theridiidae, there are certain to be some Xyaticidae 

 (Crab-Spiders) — Philodrunins aureolas, a rapid mover, Xi/sticus 

 cristatus, and X. pini, stouter and more pompous in movement 

 — we may find a large bright yellow crab-spider. This is 

 Misumena vatia, the flower-spider. It sits in flowers usually 

 of the same colour as itself and preys on insects which come 

 to visit the flower. This is one of the many good examples 

 of " Protective Resemblance " in spiders. Microiinnata virescens, 

 one of our finest species, is bright green, and very hard to 

 see in the grass, amongst which it roams. I have found this at 

 Wellington College, Berkshire, and it should turn up in the Woking- 



* Victoria History of the Counties of England. Spiders by 0. P. Cambridge. 



