1864. ] The Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland. 725 
SPIDERS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.* 
Iv is always a satisfactory consummation when the labour of a lifetime 
appears before the world, prepared and revised under the immediate 
supervision of its author; and it is no less a matter of congratula- 
tion to see a man who, in the decline of years, has accomplished his 
work, and lives to enjoy the satisfaction arising from the completion 
of a laborious task. We therefore congratulate the Natural-History 
public upon the appearance of the second and concluding portion of 
this important work, and we congratulate Mr. Blackwall upon the 
production of the beautifully-illustrated monograph which forms the 
subject of this notice—a monograph which, for completeness of detail, 
for care and labour of research, for richness and beauty of illustration, 
and for zoological interest, may well claim comparison with any with 
which we are acquainted. 
To people in general there is something peculiarly repulsive in 
the notion of spiders, and their rapacity and ferocity, added to their 
cunning, and a certain indistinctness of information upon the subject 
of their poisonous properties, place them under a general ban, such as 
is shared by the toad and suchlike “ugly and venomous” creatures. 
And this has probably been the reason why spiders have met with so 
little attention ; so that an investigation of the natural history of the 
spiders of these islands has opened a field hitherto to all intents and 
purposes unworked. Indeed, all the Zoologists who have devoted 
themselves to these really interesting creatures of late years have been 
Continental observers, particularly those of France, Sweden, and 
Germany, although one of the earliest Arachnologists was our distin- 
guished countryman, Dr. Martin Lister. Of his treatise, published in 
1678, Mr. Blackwall observes, that “in his admirable Tractatus de 
Araneis he has given us a classification of the species he has so ably 
described, founded on their external organization and economy, which 
has formed the basis of every subsequent attempt, deserving notice, to 
effect a systematic arrangement of this interesting order of animals.” 
The points of interest in the economy and habits of Spiders are 
numerous, and are likely to receive especial attention from new ob- 
servers, who will receive an impulse to their studies from the appear- 
ance of Mr. Blackwall’s admirable monograph. The eyes are taken 
as a simple and easy basis of classification. On this principle three 
tribes have been founded, which include all the species hitherto dis- 
covered, viz. Octonoculina (eyes 8), Senoculina (eyes 6), and Binoculina 
(eyes 2). Of these the first tribe is by far the most extensive; the 
second contains ten or eleven genera; while the third has been con- 
stituted for the reception of a single genus (Nops), containing two 
species of extra-European spiders. The head and chest (forming 
together the cephalo-thorax) are continuous, but the head is easily 
distinguishable by the presence of the pairs of smooth, simple eyes, 
* «A History of the Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland.’ By John Black- 
wall, F.L.S. Two Parts, 4to. 1861-4. (Ray Society.) 
