XIV FOSSIL SPIDERS 383 
In the case of some species, when the male had won the con- 
sent of his mate, he would weave a small nuptial tent or web, 
into which he would partly lead and partly drive the female, 
who no longer offered serious resistance. 
Fossil Spiders. 
About 250 species of fossil spiders have been discovered. Of 
these about 180 are embedded in amber, a fossil resinous sub- 
stance which exuded from ancient coniferous trees, and quantities 
of which are annually washed up from the Baltic upon the shores 
of northern Prussia, 
The most ancient fossil spider known was obtained from the 
argillaceous slate of Kattowitz in Silesia, and belongs, therefore, 
to the Carboniferous strata of the Palaeozoic epoch. It has been 
named Protolycosa anthrocophila. There is some doubt as to 
the affinities of this spider. Roemer, who described it, placed 
it among the Citigradae, while others have thought it to belong 
rather to the Territelariae. Thorell, on account of its agreement 
in certain important points with the very curious recent Malay 
spider Liphistius, has placed them both in a separate sub-family, 
Liphistioidae. To the same epoch belongs the American fossil 
spider Arthrolycosa antiqua, which was found in the Coal-measures 
of Illinois. 
The other localities from which fossil spiders have been 
obtained are the Swiss Miocene at Oeningen, the Oligocene de- 
posits at Aix, the Oligocene of Florissant, Colorado, Green River, 
Wyoming, and Quesnel, British Columbia. 
Many of the spiders from the rocks are so fragmentary that 
it is impossible to decide with certainty on their systematic 
position, but a considerable number of them—more than half— 
have been assigned to recent genera. 
The amber spiders are mostly well preserved, and can be 
classified with more certainty. Many of them are surprisingly 
like existing forms, though others, hike Archaea paradoxa, differ 
greatly from most spiders now extant, though they show some 
affinities with one or two remarkable and aberrant forms. 
