Spiders of Victoria. 69 



In descriptions of new species I have endeavoured to follow as 

 closely as possible Herr Koch's methods, and only venture to 

 hope that later students may find my own as lucid and reliable 

 as I have found his. 



In spite of the fact that we have many forms extremely widely 

 spread over Australasia, there are undoubtedly others whose 

 habitat is comparatively local, and different localities seem to 

 develop characteristics which are quite distinguishable. 



In these southern coastal districts, we miss the larger members 

 of the various families, as well as the more exaggerated variations 

 from the simple types, which are so numerous in the warmer 

 central and northern portions of the continent. 



As examples of this I would instance the larger Nephilae 

 Avicularidae and Philodromidae, as well as the more pronounced 

 forms of Gasteracantha found in the north, of which our southern 

 representatives are smaller and more normal in form. 



This suggests the inference that congenial surroundings of 

 life and abundance of food have had a clear influence on the 

 specialisation of members of the various families in the same 

 manner as animals develop size and abnormal shapes under the 

 more easy conditions of domestication. 



One special feature of the spider fauna of Australasia seems to 

 be that, while we find on the main continent species located also 

 in New Zealand, Fiji, and other Pacific islands at great distances 

 from our coasts, instances of intercommunity between Australia 

 and the Northern islands, or Asia, are of much more rare 

 occurrence, although the links of land connection are broken 

 by comparatively narrow straits. I except, however. New 

 Guinea and North Queensland, between which, as might be 

 expected, there is considerable interchange, though to what 

 extent we shall not know definitely until more New Guinea 

 material has been worked out. 



As far as I can judge at present. Southern Victorian species 

 spread along the coast as far west as King George's Sound in 

 greater abundance than only as far north as across the Murray 

 into Riverina. On the other hand a good many of our species 

 run up the coast-line to Bowen and Townsville, in Queensland. 



I say so far as I can judge, because our inland stations require 

 more careful searching than they have yet had before anything 

 like accurate areas for species can be assigned. 



