;o6 



NATURE 



[March 28, 1895 



colour, is given at p. 51. This account, it seems, is taken 

 from Natl-re, April 13, 1S93, p. 55S ; but it appears to 

 need corroboration. 



Among other points in respect to spiders' spinning 

 work, the use and commerical value of the pro- 

 duct is naturally referred to (pp. 83-S9), and the 

 various experiments (already published from 1709 to the 

 present time) made to ascertain their use and value are 

 noted ; but the subject does not seem to have attracted 

 much attention since Prof. Wilder's experiments in 

 1S65-1S69. Some subsequent researches made by a 

 Mr. Stillbers, an Englishman (quoted in a paper by M. 

 Guatier), appear to need more circumstantial reference 

 and explanation. It may, however, be mentioned here, 

 that in 1SS4 a small mass of spider's silk was received, 

 through Prof. Thiselton-Dyer, by the present writer, 

 from .•Vlmora, Saharunpur, India. This was mixed up 

 with the debris of dead insects and spiders, as well as with 

 portions of the plants among which the silken webs were 

 spun. Some of this mass was examined by .Mr. Thoma s 

 Wardle, who reported upon it in the Journal of 

 the Society of .Arts, May 1885 (pp. 679-680). In an 

 exhaustive paper in that journal, on " Researche s 

 on Silk Fibre," Mr. Wardle says, in the course of his 

 report :— 



" I believe, if it can be obtained in quantity, it mig ht 

 be packed in bales and sent to England, where it wou Id 

 readily find a market for being carded and span inti s ilk 

 threads for sewing or weaving purposes. It is dirtic ult 

 to estimate its market value. I dare say it would, at any 

 rate, realise one shilling to two shilUngs per lb. It is 

 rather dirty, and this would to some extent detract from 

 its value as compared with silk waste." 



The spider to which this silken miss was referable is 

 Sephilengys {Epeira) Mahibarensis, Walck , a species 

 of very wide tropical distribution, and apparently in 

 great abundance where it occurs. There seems to be 

 no reason why almost any amount of this silk should 

 not be obtainable from the low plants and s;rub on which 

 the spiders spin their snares, and, with a little care in 

 gathering, much less intermixed with dirt and other ad- 

 ventitious matter than the sample above alluded to. In 

 fact, we may easily conceive that it would be possi ble, 

 with a little trouble, to form a kind of spider-farm for th e 

 purpose of producing this silk in the greatest possib le 

 perfection and abundance. From Mr. Wardle 's analysis 

 and treatment of this silk, it may be seen that it possesse s 

 some very valuable and curious characters. 



The chapter on " Moulting Habits " is full of exceed- 

 ingly interesting details, both from published works and 

 the author's own observations. .Moulting is a critical 

 operation in spider-life, and is usually attended with a 

 great demand on the vital powers of the spider ; and 

 though spiders probably seldom succumb when in a state 

 of nature, moulting, when in confinement, frequent ly 

 proves fatal, especially when the spider is advanc ed in 

 age. A large Theraphosid, for eighteen months kept in 

 confinement in the gardens of the Zoological Society of 

 London some few years ago, died at length in its last 

 moulting process. After the last moult, which comple tes 

 the structural development of the spider, it seems that 

 no further ccdysis takes place, whatever age the spider 

 may attain. The number of moults appears to vary, not 

 only with the species, but with individuals of the same 

 NU. 1326, VOL. 51! 



species ; food, temperature, and other conditions no- 

 doubt affecting it. Chapter vi., on " Regeneration of 

 Lost Organs," is based chiefly on the researches of 

 Voldemar Wagner (" La regeneration des organes 

 perdus chez les Araignees," Bull. Soc. Imp. Moscow^ 

 18S7, No. 4) and the observations of H. Heineken {Zool. 

 Journ. iv. 1S28-29). Papers on the subject by the late 

 Mr. Blackwall are also noted. 



Part ii. consists of " Descriptions of Genera and 

 Species." In his introductory remarks to this part. 

 Dr. McCook defines the extent of the group comprised 

 in his " Orb-weaving Spiders." This is coextensive with 

 the " Orbitelarix" of Dr. Thorell, and includes Uloborus, 

 which is far removed structur.illy from the Epciridcs, as 

 well as Pathygnatha., which, so far as known, spins no 

 snare at all. The dit'liculty of drawing any decidedly 

 marked line between the Retitelaria, and Orhitelaricz is 

 no doubt great. Witness the results arrived at by 

 M. Eugene Simon in his work now in progress — 

 "Histoire des .\raignees," second edition, 1893-4— in 

 which these two enormous groups are fused, and again 

 subdivided: the materials being recast in a way which 

 upsets all the previously conceived ideas of araneologists. 

 However, until these new views are better understood 

 and generally adopted, the old division into geometric 

 web weavers and those whose snares are not geometric, 

 but net-like, with exceptions such as the Uloborida: and 

 Pachygnatlux, are sufficient for popular as well as faunistic 

 purposes. 



At pp. 8 and 133, reference is made to drawings of 

 American spiders made by John Abbott early in the 

 present century, and the descriptions of which are 

 contained in Baron Walckenaer's Ins. Apt., a.d. 1837. 

 It appears from Dr. McCook 's remarks that he was 

 under the impression that some drawings which he 

 saw in the British Museum in 1887 were the original 

 drawings of John Abbott's spiders. This, however, 

 is not so. The British Museum set of drawings are 

 either a copy of those of Abbott, or, may be, a dupli- 

 cate set done by .Vbbott himself. The originals (or, 

 at any rate, those from which W.ilckenac r drew up his 

 descriptions of the spiders) are in the possession of the 

 authorities at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris. Many 

 years ago it was proposed to the present writer by 

 the late Dr. John Gray, of the British Museum, to 

 prepare and publish descriptions of the spiders from the 

 British Museum copy, along with plates engraved some 

 years previously from that copy, under Dr. Gray's 

 orders. Such descriptions, however, it is ciuite obvious, 

 could not possibly be done satisfactorily from the draw- 

 ings alone— witness Baron Walckenaer's efforts— though 

 no doubt numbers of the spiders delineated can, with 

 more or less certainty, be specifically determined from 

 them. The result of an inquiry made at that time, 

 was that the French nation h:is .Abbott's original drawings, 

 which were presented, directly or indirectly, to Baron 

 Walckenaer by Abbott himself; but what the British 

 Museum set was, or how it was actiuired, seemed to be 

 very doubtful.' 



In a general notice like the present, part. ii. of the vol. 



1 Dr. McCook cvidenlly wjs not aw.irc ih.il the present writer, in a 

 review ol N. M. Hentz's '• North American Spiders" m 1876 (I^ATUHB. 

 vol. xiii.p. aiv). meniiom theie fact-, a ri cjasi Jcralioni respecting Jolm 

 Abbott'i drawinKi. 



