NOTES AND QUERIES. 393 



any contributor to ' The Zoologist' could inform me of localities in 

 Berkshire in which the Sand-Lizard occurs, I should be obliged. — W. 

 H. Waknek (Fyfield, near Abingdon, Berks). 



AEACH-NIDA. 



The Distribution of the Diadem Spider. — It is generally taken for 

 granted, I believe, that Aranea diadema, Linn., the so-called Common 

 Garden Spider, is uniformly distributed throughout this country. A 

 collecting experience of some years' duration in various counties in the 

 South of England had impressed this idea upon my mind, and the 

 material that has passed through Mr. 0. P. Cambridge's hands prompted 

 his statement that this Spider " is found in all parts of Great Britain 

 and Ireland." I was therefore surprised to find no trace of it at 

 Kilnsea, a small village near the extremity of the promontory that 

 ends with Spurn Point, in Yorkshire, where I collected in the latter 

 half of August — a time when this Spider is in full force in the localities 

 it frequents. That the physical features of Spurn Point contain no 

 element likely to be inimical to the welfare of a species so adaptive in 

 its habits as diadema is attested by the presence of such allied forms as 

 A. quadrata, A. cornuta, &c., which were met with in some abundance; 

 nor, so far as could be ascertained, had there been any exceptional 

 climatic occurrences during the previous spring and winter to account 

 for its local extermination for the time being. The object of this note 

 is to draw attention to the probability that we have yet something to 

 learn on the negative side respecting the distribution of this well- 

 known species, and to induce those who have the opportunity of in- 

 vestigating the point to ascertain its range in the East Riding of York- 

 shire, and other parts of the east of England, especially in places 

 where the soil consists of boulder clay. — R. I. Pocock (Brit. Museum, 

 Nat. Hist.). 



Zool. 4th Her. vol. V., October. 1901. 2" h 



