306 FOSSIL SPIDERS. 



Possil Spiders.. 



Although no Spiders have been yet discovered in any 

 rocks so ancient as the Carboniferous series, the presence 

 of Insects in this series, and also of Scorpions, renders it 

 highly probable that the cognate family of Spiders was co- 

 ordinate with Scorpions, in restraining the Insect tribes of 

 this early epoch, and that it will ere long be recognised 

 among its fossil remains.* 



The existence of Spiders in the Jurassic portion of the 

 Secondary formations has been established, by Count Hun- 

 ter's discovery of two species in the hthographic limestone 

 of Solenhofen. M.. Marcel de Serres and Mr. Murchison 

 have discovered fossil Spiders in Fresh-water Tertiary strata 

 near Aix in Provence. (See PI. 46", Fig. 12.) 



* The animal found by Me. W. Anslice in the Iron-stone of Coalbrook. 

 Dale, and noticed by Mr. Prestvvich as "apparently a Spider" (Phil. Mag. 

 May, 1834, V. iv. p. 376,) has been subsequently laid open by me, and 

 shown to be an Insect, belonging to the family of Curculionidae. (PI 46", 

 Fig. 1.) At the time when it was figured, and supposed to be a Spider, 

 its head and tail were covered by iron-stone, and its appearance much 

 resembled an animal of this kind. Mr. Prestwich announces also the 

 discovery, in the same formation, of a Coleopterous Insect, which will 

 be fartiicr described in our next section, as referable also to the Circu- 

 lionidce. 



It is scarcely possible to ascertain the precise nature of the animals, rudely 

 figured as Spiders and Insects on Coal slate by Lhwyd, (Ichnograph, Tab_ 

 4,) and copied by Parkinson, (Org. Rem. \^'. iii. PI. 17, Figs, 3, 4, 5, 6;) 

 but his opinion of them is rendered highly probable by the recent discoveries 

 in Coalbrook Dale : " Scrips! olim suspicari me Araneorum quorundam 

 icones, unii cum Lilhophytis in Schisto Carbonaria, observasse : hoc jam 

 ulteriore experientia edoctus aperte assero. Alias icones habeo, quas ad 

 Scarabffiorum genus quJim proximo acccdunt. In posterum ergo non tan- 

 ttim Lthophyta, sed etquaedam Insecta in hoc lapidc investigarc conabimur." 

 Uuvyd Epist. iii, ad fin. 



