IV. 

 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON SPIDERS. 

 By F. M. Campbell, F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.R.M.S. 



Read at Hertford, 2nd December, 1879. 



There is probably no subject in Katiiral History which has 

 been so much neglected as that of spiders, and this may 

 account for the few species favoured with popular names. As 

 far as I know, these are "the money-spinner," "the harvest 

 spider," "the Hertfordshire spider," "the garden spider," "the 

 house spider," "the cellar spider," "the trap-door spider." Of 

 these, the "money-spinner" and the " harvest spider," although 

 of the class Arachnidse, belong respectively to the orders Acarinao 

 and Adelarthrosomatae, whereas all true spiders are embraced in 

 the Araneidae. As respects the " Hertfordshire spider," I have 

 been unable to discover the particular species to which the name 

 refers. Various specimens have been sent me, but there was 

 nothing common to all except large size. There were more of the 

 "house spider" {Tegenaria domestica) than of any other, but 

 although this species has not been found in some localities, it is 

 generally common in the London district, and widely distributed 

 on the Continent. 



Systematic Arrangement. 



Mr. Blackwall* separated spiders into tribes according to the 

 number of their eyes. In England there are only those with six 

 eyes (Senoculina) and eight eyes (Octonoculina), while in other 

 parts of the world there are spiders with two and four eyes. The 

 same araneologist divided the "Octonoculina" into ten families, 

 and the "Senoculina" into two, the distinctive characters being 

 the position and comparative size of the eyes, the shape of the 

 palpi, maxillae, falces, labium, cephalothorax, sternum (breast- 

 plate), and abdomen, and the proportionate length of the legs. 



The general arrangement is however open to much objection. 

 It is "too artificial, and based on insufficient (though in some 

 respects convenient) characters, and moreover" has not " found 

 favour with other araneologists." 



The above quotation is from a paper by the Rev. 0. P. Cam- 

 bridge, entitled "Systematic List of the Spiders at present known 

 to inhabit Great Britain and Ireland."! which gives the names, and 

 synonyms where necessary, of 457 species. Since then (1874) 

 the number has been increased to about 520. Sooner or later 

 Mr. Blackwall's classification will have to be abandoned for one 

 more in accord with other authorities ; but the proposal to employ 

 as a basis the form of the webs can never be accepted, as the 



* ' A History of the Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland.' — 1859-64. 

 + ' Trans. Linnean Society-,' vol. xxx. 



