Wisconsin Academy of Sciences^ Arts and Letters 



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Had Walckenaer published Abbot's plates in connection with his descrip- 

 tions it would doubtless have been easy to identify manyof his species, but 

 as the law of priority deals only with published matter, his claim to species 

 must rest upon his descriptions alone, although Abbot's manuscript plates 

 may be seen in the British Museum. In the event of their pubhcation at 

 sorae future time, such species as are identifiable, for the first time, through 

 the figures, must be ascribed to Abbot at that date, and not to Walckenaer. 



A good example of the difficulties of dealing with Walckenaer may be 

 found in a species which he published in his first volume as Attus proter- 

 vus, a black spider with black legs and palpi. In his fourth volume he 

 refers to this species, saying: "Add to the synonymy Plexippus undatus 

 Koch." Now there is no doubt that this last mentioned spider is identical 

 with Attus vittatus ( $ ) Hentz, one of our most common species. The de- 

 scrij)tion and figure of Koch represent it fairly well as a dark spider with 

 chevrons of white hair, and yellow legs and palpi. As a matter of fact the 

 general appearance is very seldom so dark as would appear from Koch, 

 who seems to have described from a single specimen. If, indeed, Walcke- 

 naer's A. p>rotervus and Koch's PI. undatus are identical, Walckenaer's de- 

 scription is absolutely false and bears no resemblance to the species. We 

 can only suppose that Walckenaer was mistaken in thinking them identical. 



We have callections from various parts of North America. Those of 

 Count Keyserling (containing a number of type-specimens) and of Mr. Nic- 

 olas G. Pike have been of esj)ecial use to us. We are also indebted for 

 specimens to the following persons. The locahty in which each collection 

 ■R^as made is indicated after the name of the sender. 



Miss Edith Gifford, Mexico; Mr. Chas. Mann, Louisiana, Florida; Mr. Fr. 

 Rauterberg, Texas; Miss Aiigusta Tovell, Texas; Mr. Thos. Gentry, North 

 Carohna, South Carolina, Georgia; Mr. F. S. Risley, Florida; Col. J. J. 

 Young, Pennsylvania; Mr. Philija NeU (for many siDecimens), Pennsylvania; 

 Mrs. Mary B. Putnam, Iowa, Utah; Mr. Aurelius Todd, Oregon; Miss Mur- 

 ray, California; Mr. L. E. Ricksecker, Cahfornia; Prof. J. J. Rivers, Cali- 

 fornia; Mr. W. G. Harford, California, Washington Territory; Mr. W. G, 

 Wright, California; Prof. O. B. Johnson, Washington Territory; Dr. F. 

 Bi'endel, Illinois; Mr. Philip Abbot, Massachusetts; Mr. H. Van Rensselaer, 

 Connecticut; J. B. Tyrrell, Esq. (Geol. Survey of Canada), Canada, Rocky 

 Mountains; Rev. H. C. McCook, various parts of United States; M. E. Si- 

 mon, Mexico; Dr. Ferdinand Karsch, collection of Attidse of Royal Mu- 

 seum of Berlin (containing many North American sjjecimens.) 



North American Attidse have been described by the following writers: 

 Walckenaer: Hist. Nat. des Insectes Apteres, 1837 ?-47. 

 N. M. Hentz : Occasional Papers, 1842-45. 

 C. Koch: Die Arachnid en, 1846. 

 Giebel: IlLhiois Spiders, Zeitschrift fur Gesammten Natm'wissenschaften, 



1869. 

 J. Blackwall: Spiders from Canada, Ann. & Mag. of Nat. Hist. 



