7950 Arachnida. 



Family Epeirid^. 



Epeira Intea, Koch. I discovered adult females of this fine Epeira 

 (now first recorded as British), among low plants in plantations at 

 Drayton-Beauchauip, Buclis, in August last. 



E. sericata, Koch. In September, 1858, I met with two adult 

 males on the city wall at Chester; Mr. Blackwall has only lately 

 ascertained them to be of this species. It is now recorded for the 

 first time as British. 



*E. bella, Meade. Adult males (the male adult hitherto unknown) 

 of this very pretty species were captured by myself, together with 

 adult females, among low plants at Drayton-Beauchamp, in company 

 with E. lutea. 



*E. calva, Blackw. Abundant among rough grass on the Downs, 

 Hursley, in August. 



In giving the above simple and unscientific list, I must repeat again 

 here that my sole object has been to draw the attentoin of the " col- 

 lector" to the subject of spiders. I have tried to show that, looked 

 upon not only as objects of great interest, both in variety of form, 

 colour and habits, but looked upon merely as an object " to collect," 

 spiders offer a far more fertile field than most orders of insects. It 

 would be difficult to name any order of insects to our indigenous lists 

 of which upwards of sixty species might be added, as the result of a 

 limited amount of leisure bestowed on them during eight years ! One 

 great recommendation to the study of spiders is, that but little or no 

 time is required for mounting or preserving them, and this, to the col- 

 lector who has but little leisure to devote to his hobby indoors, is a 

 very great point. Another recommendation is, that all the parts on 

 tlie structure of which, generic and other characters are based, are 

 easily observed and examined, either through the spirit in the tubes 

 or else out of them, the spirit having been allowed to evaporate, a pro- 

 cess which a few minutes will complete. But in spite of all that has 

 been or can be said, there seems to be a kind of general aversion to a 

 spider, and with numbers of persons a sort of creeping against handling 

 them. 1 have found this the case even with collectors who would not 

 scruple to dive down into a putrid mass to capture a beetle. How 

 long this will be the case seems doubtful ; certainly the converts to 

 Arachnology are as yet kvr and far between, while to some other 

 branches of Entomology recruits are numbered almost by scores. Per- 

 haps when the Ray Society has completed the ])ublication of Mr. 



