On EUROPEAN SPIDERS. 33 
We are however afraid that the author has not executed his work with 
sufficient care and accuracy to be said to have solved so comprehen- 
sive a problem in a satisfactory manner: he does not even possess the 
acquaintance with arachnological literature indispensably necessary for a 
work of this nature ?). Accordingly a very large number both of genera 
and species made known before the publication of SrwoNs work by 
German, English, American, Swedish and other authors, are in that 
work wanting. 
SIMON divides the spiders into 9 families: Scytodiformes, Mygalifor- 
mes, Drassiformes, Théridiformes, Épériformes, Salticiformes, Lycosiformes, 
Thomisiformes and Myrmeciformes. The first of these families, Scytodi- 
formes, includes the genera Scytodes, Omosites, Rachus, Pholcus and Artema, 
which union appears to us fully justified. On the other hand the combination 
of two so widely different generic forms as Myrmecium and Chersis (Palpi- 
manus) in the family Myrmeciformes, does not appear to be a happy step, 
nor does the union of Agelenidæ BLACKW. with Theridides SuND. to one fa- 
mily, Zheridiformes, seem more reasonable. Agalenoide and Theridioide 
are by SIMON not even separated as sub-families or tribes: when break- 
ing up his Theridiformes. into 3 such divisions ( Clothéiens, Théridiens, 
and Linyphiens), he removes e. g. the genera Linyphia and Micryphantes 
from his Théridiens (Theridium, Erigone, etc.) and unites them with the 
Agalenoide in the sub-family Linyphiens. — Whether SrwoN has been right 
in removing Æresus from the Attides SUND. and aggregating that genus to 
his Épéiriformes, it must also be permitted to doubt. 
Most of the 93 genera adopted by SIMON appear to us founded in 
nature; indeed they correspond, with the exception of Oxyptila (for Thomi- 
sus claveatus WALCK.) and Phrynoides (for Th. rugosus WALCK. and Th. 
1) This is evidenced already in the introduetion, where the author has attempt- 
ed to give a brief account of the development of arachnology: thus for ex., having 
mentioned WALCKENAER's Tableau des Aranéides and Histoire Naturelle des Insectes 
Aptéres, the former printed in 1805 and the latter 1837—1847, he immediately con- 
tinues: "Cependant, presque en méme temps, LISTER, en Angleterre, donnait son Hi- 
stoire des Araignées trop courte et trop incomplète; CLERCK et DE GEER, en Suède, 
poursuivaient des études sur les moeurs de quelques espéces", etc. LrsTER's classical 
work, "Historie Animalium Anglie tres tractatus. | Unus de Araneis” ete. here refer- 
red to, was however printed in 1678, CLERCK’S "Svenska Spindlar, Aranei Suecici”, in 
1757, and the volume (Tom. VII) of DE Green's "Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire 
des Insectes", which treats of spiders, in 1778. The works in question were then by 
no means published, as SIMON states, nearly at the same time, but during the course 
of three successive centuries. 
Nova Acta Reg. Soc. Se. Ups. Ser. III. 5 
