SCORPIONS, PEDIPALPI AND SPIDERS COLLECTED BY 

 DR WILLEY IN NEW BRITAIN, THE SOLOMON ISLANDS, 



LOYALTY ISLANDS, etc. 



By R. I. POCOCK, 



OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



With Plates X. and XI. 



The Arachnida forming the subject matter of the following pages are referable to 

 49 species. Of these a large majority (namely thirty-six) was collected in Xew Britain, 

 six only being obtained in the Solomon Islands and nine in the Loyalty Archipelago 

 and on the Isle of Pines. All the species met with in the last-mentioned localities 

 prove referable to previously described forms ; but of the six brought from the 

 Solomon Islands two appear to be new, and of the 3G from Xew Britain no fewer than 

 14 are undescribed, so that the total number of species novae collected amounts to 16, 

 that is to say, nearly 35 per cent, of the whole collection. 



Dr Willey's researches in the Solomon Islands add three species to the list 

 recently published by me 1 , namely, one Scorpion (Archisometrus perfidus), one Pedipalp 

 (Tltelyplioiuis leucwrus) and one Spider (Linus alticeps). 



From the Archipelago of Xew Britain, including New Ireland, Duke of York 

 Island and Xew Hanover, the following species had been recorded in 1881 (see 

 Thorell, Ann. Mus. Genova, xvn., pp. 6S4 — 71 1 1 :— (7 asteracantha panisicca, Butl. ; G. 

 pentagona, Walck. ; G. studeri, £arsch; Argiopi brownii, Cambr.; Argiope picta, L.Koch; 

 Argiope pentagona, L. Koch; Epeira trigona, L. Koch; E. gazellae, Karsch ; Nephila 

 maculata, Fab.: Heteropoda vulpina, Cambr.; Heteropoda peroniana, Walck.; Palystes 

 ignicomus, L. Koch ; P. pinnotherus, Walck. Of these 13 species, Gasteraca ntha panisicca, 

 recorded by Mr 0. P. Cambridge, is probably identical with the species Thorell sub- 

 sequently described as G. karschii, and Heteropoda vulpina described by Mr 0. P. 

 Cambridge is, in my opinion, identical without doubt with Palystes ignicomus of 

 L. Koch. It is further possible that the specimens referred to Argiope pentagona by 

 Karsch are identical with those that Mr Cambridge described as A. brownii, the two 

 species being closely related. 



Keyserling subsequently recorded the following species from Xew Ireland: — Gaster- 

 acantha violenta, L. Koch; G. mollusca, L. Koch; Cyclosa insulana, Costa, and Argyro- 

 epeira grata, Gue'rin ; and since the majority of those contained in Thorell's list also 

 came from Xew Ireland or Xew Hanover, and the Duke of York Island, the exact 

 locality of the specimens collected by Mr Brown being apparently doubtful, it is clear 

 that the material brought by Dr Willey from Xew Britain is of considerable value 

 from a faunistic point of view seeing that practically nothing was previously known 

 of the Arachnid fauna of that island. 



1 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (7), I. pp. 457—475, 1898. 



