SPIDERS 



tritici, the Red Maggot or Wheat Midge, often proves a great enemy to the farmer. The 

 eggs of this troublesome species are deposited inside the florets of wheat, and the resulting 

 grub does so much damage to the young grains that they do not come to maturity. In 1881 

 the Wheat Midge was seen swarming in chaff near Knebworth, and its larvae did a consider- 

 able amount of mischief. 1 Another insect very destructive to crops is the Common Daddy 

 Long-legs or Crane Y\y(Tipula oleracea\ which often makes its unwelcome presence known to 

 the Hertfordshire farmer. In 1880 great injury was done at Baldock, where forty acres of 

 wheat were damaged to the extent of quite 100 by the ' Leather Jackets,' as its grubs are 

 commonly called. With the exception of Mr. Rothschild's catalogue of the Pulicidae printed 

 above no list of Hertfordshire Diptera appears to be in existence. 



Hemiptera and Aphides. Although the common species belonging to both the sub-orders 

 Heteroptera and Homoptera are to be found in the county of Hertford I cannot learn that any 

 naturalist has devoted attention to them. The same remark must be applied to the Aphides. 



ARACHNIDA 



Spiders, etc. 



Greater researches have been made in connection with members of 

 this order in the county of Hertford than perhaps in any other county of 

 England with the exception of Dorset. 



These have been almost entirely due to the efforts of F. Maule- 

 Campbell, Esq., F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.R.H.S., whose valuable paper on the 

 'Spiders of the Neighbourhood of Hoddesdon ' was published in 1883 

 in the Transactions of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society. 



Of the physical character and geological formation of the county 

 with reference to the arachnidal fauna one cannot do better than quote 

 Mr. Campbell's remarks : ' There is in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of Hoddesdon no extent of chalk limestone nor real heath soil, all of 

 which would be desirable from a collector's point of view. We have 

 but gravel and clay-loam. Nor are there any special limits which 

 would make the fauna particularly interesting. The Lea marshes, and 

 the valleys and woods on this side of that river, have no exceptional 

 characteristic, and there can be but little doubt but that all the spiders 

 which are named could be found throughout the Lea district.' 



Nor can this list be considered a full one, for while 550 and up- 

 wards of species are recorded from England and Wales, 203 species are 

 all that have been placed to the credit of Hertfordshire, besides 2 false- 

 scorpions and i harvestman. 



Of these the following merit a special notice : Dysdera crocota, Oonops 

 pulcher, Glubiona c<zru/escens, Chiracanthium lapidicolens, Altella spinigera, 

 Centromerus expertus, Hilaira uncata, Linyphia impigra, Araneus a/sine, 

 Meta menardi, Leptorhoptrum hutbivaitii, Plcesiocrczrus permixtus, Entelecara 

 trifrons, Viderius anticus, V. cucullatus and Panamomops bicuspis. 



By far the greater part of the species recorded are from the neigh- 

 bourhood of Hoddesdon. In cases where the generic or specific name 

 quoted is not that under which the spider has usually been recognized in 

 the works of English authors a note has been added calling attention to 

 the fact. 



1 Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Sac., vol. ii. p. 82. 

 171 



