220 Dr. W. Rae Sherriffs on 



XXIV. — A Contribution to the Study of Smth Indian 

 Arachwlogy. By W. Rae Sherriffs, M.A., D.Sc, 

 formerly Professor of Zoology, Madras Christian College, 

 Madras. 



[Plates IT.-VI.] 



In the preface to his volume on the ' Araehnida ' (Fauna 

 of British India Series) Mr. R. I. Pocock says "all that has 

 been attempted is to afford means of identifying the larger, 

 commoner, better known and more widely distributed 

 forms ... It is to be hoped that the present work, by 

 facilitating the study of Indian spiders, will increase the 

 number of observers and collectors, so that at some future 

 time a far more complete account of these animals may 

 become practicable." 



These sentences were penned in 1900 and during the 

 intervening years no contributions have been made to this 

 subject, excepting quite recent papers by Dr. Gravely of 

 the Indian Museum, Calcutta. 



Thorell in his 'Catalogue of the Spiders of Burma s 

 (written in Latin) and Pocoek in his 'Araehnida' are 

 purely descriptive, their aim being solely to enable their 

 spiders to be identified. Simon in his vast work ' Histoire 

 naturelle des Araignees' not only is systematic in his 

 treatment, but also gives an account of the habits and 

 customs of the different genera. As he deals with the spiders 

 of the whole world, this part of the subject-matter is neces- 

 sarily brief. 



In the present paper the emphasis is not on the systematic 

 side, for the writer has attempted, for the first time in South 

 India, to enumerate the spiders commonly found throughout 

 the hills and plains, regardless of size or any other consider- 

 ation, definitely noting localities ; also to describe their 

 general life, habits and associations, the nature of the webs, 

 their stabilimenta, and the cocoons with contained eggs. 



With regard to the localities a few words of explanation 

 are necessary. The spiders were colleeted during 1914-18 

 from three distinct regions — (1) the plains of South India 

 represented by Madias city and the country around for 12 

 miles to the north (Ennur) and o5 miles to the south 

 (Chingleput), (2) the hills, principally the Nilgiris, (3) 

 central upcountry Ceylon. These three distinct regions 

 differ widely in their rainfall, and therefore in the relative 

 abundance of spiders throughout the year. Around Madras 



