Inaugural Addresi by the President zi 



to discover if these similarities are the result of a connection in 

 former times. For such an investigation a knowledge of the 

 forms that lived during the past history of the earth is 

 imperative. 



Unfortunatel}' it is most difficult to get the remains of 

 invertebrates well preserved in geological strata, owing to their 

 perishable nature, but there is one substance in which we have 

 them well preserved, even better than the larger animals. 

 That substance is amber. Great numbers of spiders, as well as 

 other articulata are found embedded in the amber which is 

 copiously cast up on the southern shores of the Baltic, many in 

 a complete state of preservation. The principal work by Koch 

 and Berendt, on the subject of these remains describes these 

 amber spiders, three of which are remarkable for their strangely 

 elevated heads, and are grouped in one genus Archaea. Type, 

 Archaea paradoxa. 



Koch considered this genus not to be related to any known 

 spiders, while the late Professor Menge of Danzig, believed 

 them at first to have most affinity with Tetragnatha^ but after- 

 wards refers Archaea to the Laterigrades. However within 

 the last few years living spiders have been discovered closely 

 related to Archaea^ but strange to sa y, in widely separated 

 parts of the world. 



The first of these sent by me to the Rev. O. Pickard- 

 Cambridge and described by him under the name of Eriauch- 

 enius Workmani was found in Madagascar. He said " It is of 

 great interest, not only on account of its singularly elevated 

 caput, but because the elevation is of a type quite distinct from 

 anything I have ever before met with." 



Some specimens of Walckenaera have the upper part of the 

 caput elevated to a great height, and the eyes are (some or all) 

 carried up with it; but in the present spider not only the eyes 

 but the falces are carried up, necessitating the extraordinary 

 development of the latter to enable them to meet and cooperate 

 with the other parts of the mouth. These parts would other- 

 wise have been left open and exposed and the spider itself 



