96 Rev. F. O. Pickard-Carabridge on 



males and females of ihe two forms liitherto regarded as 

 L. erranSy VA., with the exception of one of the forms, of 

 wiiich no adult males appeared, curiously enough, in Mr. 

 Campbell's collection, though there were plenty of females; 

 and a single female of the Ibrm 1 hold to be intermediate. 



The second collection contained specimens of L. oblonrja, 

 Cb., females ; specimens of both forms of errans, including 

 one adult male of those in collection number one, whose 

 males were there conspicuous by their absence, and also 

 four females, the original types of Mr. Blackwall's errans, 

 described in ' Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland.' 



Lastly, 1 received from Dr. Meade two tubes containing 

 specimens seen and named by Mr. Blackwall himself as far 

 back as 1860, just before his magnificent work was pub- 

 lished. 



With all this valuable material so generously submitted to 

 me I have had little difficulty in disentangling the matter 

 and ascertaining exactly what was the original erranSj Bi., 

 and which of the forms before me were identical with it. 



In both Mr. Campbell's and my uncle's collections I ob- 

 served the same two apparently distinct forms of L. errans, BI. 



So, also, when I came to Dr. Meade's spiders I found two 

 tubes, both marked iV. errans (one, however, with a label 

 " from coal-pits "), named by Mr. Blackwall himself; and in 

 these two tubes I recognized the same two ditferent sjiecies 

 accurately separated and yet labelled with the same name. 



Through the kindness ot Dr. Meade I have been enabled 

 to peruse several very interesting letters bearing on the 

 contents of these two historic tubes, written by Mr. Black- 

 wall ; and 1 am now in a position to show how it came about 

 that the two, though evidently recognized as distinct, were 

 not regarded as ditferent species, and also to declare which of 

 the two tubes contains the original X. errans of Blackwall. 



It seems that Dr. Meade had already sent specimens to 

 Mr. Blackwall which were named A', errans. Subsequently 

 he received from Mr. Morison some small spiders from Pelton 

 Coal-Pits, Durham, which he also sent on to Mr. Blackwall, 

 ex})ressing his u])iiiion that they were ditferent to the others. 



I quote extracts from the correspondence which will show 

 exactly how the matter was settled. 



In a letter dated February '2'2, 1860, Mr. Blackwall says, 



