4l8 ON SOME RARE ARACHNIDS 



On so/ne Rare Arachnids obtained during igo8 



By a. Randell Jackson, M.B., M.Sc. 



(With Plate X.) 



During the past year I have had little opportunity of 

 collecting or examining Arachnids. Several spiders, however, 

 which I have come across are new to the British fauna, and 

 one appears to be new to science. Of this I have only a 

 solitary female captured near Chester. It is a Cornicularia, 

 and it is so distinct from all its congeners that I here publish a 

 description and figure of it. I have called it C. valida. At 

 the end of May I captured a couple of specimens of Araneus 

 droniedarius (Walck.) amongst heather at Burnham Beeches 

 in Buckinghamshire. This is a fine and striking addition to 

 our fauna. In the New Forest a few days later both sexes of 

 Araneus Sturmii (Hahn) occurred. I subsequently found 

 examples of this distinct species in my collection, where they 

 had been included with specimens of A. triguttatus (Fab.) 

 under the latter name. Mr. Cambridge also found A. Sturmii 

 in his collection in a similar situation, and a supposed example 

 of ^. triguttatus sent to me by Mr. Falconer turned out also to 

 be A. Sturmii. No doubt both species are really more or less 

 common in Britain, but A. Sturmii (Hahn) has never been 

 recorded from our islands previously. Finally Mr. D. R. 

 Pack-Beresford sent me in November two females of the 

 Oonopid Triceris stenaspis (Sim.) from a hot-house in the 

 Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin near Dublin. This species 

 has of course no claim to be considered as a member of 

 our fauna. As, however, practically all our British animals 

 (ourselves included) are immigrants of only a slightly earlier 

 date, it seems to me that exotic forms capable of living 

 under any circumstances in our country are of considerable 

 scientific interest. These minute spiders of the family 

 Oonopidee seem to have no difficulty in living and repro- 

 ducing their species in a suitable temperature at almost any 

 latitude. Besides these four additions to our fauna there 

 are several other notes of interest. I am figuring the palpus 



