456 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNING WORK. 



telarise. I insert a fac simile copy of the figure published by Professor 

 Beecher (Fig. 381), representing a dorsal view of the fossil, and (Fig. 382) 

 a bare outline when viewed directly in front. From the figure and profile 

 it is seen that all the limbs of the spider are in nearly their natural posi- 

 tion, having undergone but slight displacement and decay, while its per- 

 fection indicates that it is not a shed skin which is preserved, but that 

 the actual animal was entombed. It throws an interesting side light upon 

 the life habits of this creature, to learn that in the same concretion which 

 contains the fossil are fragments of the broad leaves of a rush like plant 

 which, as Professor Beecher thinks, probably furnished a float by which 

 the spider was carried out from land, so that its remains are found min- 

 gled in the same bed with marine organisms. 



In this connection I may call attention to another fossil spider which 

 has been supposed also to belong to the Territelarise. While visiting the 



British Museum of Natural History at South 

 Kensington, London, in the summer of 1887, 

 my attention was called to some fossil spiders 

 by Dr. Henry Woodward, Keeper of the Geo- 

 logical Department. Among these I observed 

 one which seemed new to science, and closely 

 related to the genus Atypus. After my return 

 to America, Dr. Woodward sent me casts both 

 in wax and plaster, from which a description 

 of the species was made, and the name Eo- 

 atypus woodwardii suggested. 1 The fossil is 

 simply an impression in the shale, which, how- 

 ever, is tolerably well preserved, but exhibits 

 few features necessary to classification. The 

 eyes are not defined, and nothing but a little 

 FlG - 384 - roughened elevation in the centre of the caput, 



FIG. 383. Fossil spider Eoatypus wood- , . , 



wardii Mccook. Dorsal view. x3. wnic h may or may not be an organic cast, 

 FIG. 384. Eoatypus woodwardii. side g i ves any suggestion of the eye space. As far 



V1GW. X 3. t 



as it goes, this appears to follow the charac- 

 teristics of Atypus and the Territelarise generally. The appearance of the 

 mandibles also suggests this relation, and the general facies of the fossil is 

 to the same effect. The drawings have been made from a plaster cast, 

 Fig. 383 representing the dorsal view, and 'Fig. 384 the same in outline, 

 both magnified three times natural size. 2 



1 Proc. Acad. Nat Sci., Phila., 1888, page 200, for full description of the species. 



2 I hesitated much as to whether this fossil should be assigned to the LycosidaB, the 

 Attidse, or to Atypinse. On the whole, I decided, though not positively, as above, and on 

 the above named grounds. It seemed impossible, in the absence of the characteristic eyes 

 and long jointed superior spinners to relegate the species positively to the genus Atypus. 

 Besides expressing the general facies of the fossil as above described, the generic value of 

 the name Eoatypus consists largely in assigning the specimen rank as a fossil spider. 



