XXXVI. 



THE SriDERS OF THE XEIGIIBOFRnOOD OF HODDESDON : 



A CONTRIBUTIOX TO THE ARACHNIDAL FAUNA OF 



HERTFORDSUIRE. 



By F. M. Campbell, F.L.S., F.Z.S., r.ll.:5J:.S. 



Read at Hertford, 1st June, 1883. 



The following list of 201 species of Spiders caught within a few 

 miles of Hoddesdon is my first contribution to the Arachnidal 

 fauna of our county. Ten families and fifty-three genera are re- 

 presented. There is in the immediate neighbourhood no extent 

 of chalk, limestone, nor real heath-soil, all of which would be 

 desmible from a collector's point of view. AYe have but gravel 

 and clay-loam. Nor are there any special limits which would make 

 the fauna particularly interesting. The Lea marshes, and the 

 yalleys and woods on this side of that river, have no exceptional 

 characteristic, and there can be but little doubt but that all the 

 spiders which are named could be found throughout the Lea 

 district. Many species must, of course, have escaped me, and 

 were I still to limit my search to this part of the county, several 

 supplements would be necessary before the list at all approached 

 completeness. The wind * must, at any rate, be continually bring- 

 ing us fresh visitors. If, for instance, several recently-hatched 

 broods of any one species, influenced by the same atmospheric 

 conditions, were to place themselves in a position for "aerial 

 flight," f it might be expected that a number of about the same 

 weight would be wafted by a current to the same locality, where 

 they would seek a suitable habitat where the sexes would meet. 



As with insects, some spiders have exceedingly narrow limits of 

 local distribution, which do not appear to be governed by the nature 

 of the soil, nor by other conditions as yet known to influence either 

 themselves or their food. Thus in 1882 I found Walchendera Meadii, 

 Cambr., in some numbers on a marshy place about 30 feet long by 

 20 feet broad, but I failed to meet with them in the Lea valley 

 elsewhere, though their home was in direct connection with spots 

 of a similar nature. Three years in succession I have only met 

 with Linyphia nehdosa, Simd., in a small out house, and not even 

 in similar places on the same premises. There was no apparent 

 cause for the preference. 



In March and April of this year, Linyphia errans, Blackw., and 

 X. ohionga, Cambr., were abundant, in suitable weather, on the iron 

 railings of a large meadow, which is separated from another with 

 a similar aspect by a narrow road and low hedge, from which 

 runs at right angles another set of iron railings ; yet on these latter 



* See ' ' Note on the probable Geographical Distribution of a Spider by the 

 Trade Winds," by Dr. H. C. McCook, ' Proc. Nat. Sci. PhUadelphia,' 1878, 

 p. 136. 



t "Observations on Spiders," 'Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. See.,' Vol. I (1879), 

 p. 42. 



