58 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



A NOTE ON THE ARANEJE ABOUND YAEMOUTH. 

 By Bichard Hancock. 



In August last I had the pleasure of spending a few days' 

 holiday with Mr. Arthur H. Patterson, of Great Yarmouth. I 

 started away from home with the idea of spending several 

 days collecting the Spiders of the immediate district, but could 

 not break away from the charms of the houseboat and its owner ; 

 so that consequently little collecting was done. However, 

 although my captures were but small in number (some thirty- 

 one species only), some of them I had not found in my own 

 county (Warwickshire) ; while one of the Erigonince, viz. Neriene 

 affinis, BL, has only been found on three or four occasions in 

 England, and is remarkable for the great length of palpus and 

 the smallness of the digital joint, while the falces have a peculiar 

 denticule or tooth near the middle, and directed towards the 

 inner surface- It is found also on the Continent, being the type 

 of the genus Tmeticus of Menge, viz. Tmeticus leptocaulis. I was 

 indeed pleased to be able to record this rarity. 



One afternoon I went to Belton, a little straggling village 

 about four miles away, and spent a couple of hours on some 

 marsh -land near the station. "Within an area of some three 

 hundred yards square I found fifteen species, several of them 

 in great numbers. On the stems of the sedges were many 

 silken tubes having open ends, containing one of the Drassidce 

 (Clubiona neglecta), a sombre-looking spider, as, indeed, nearly 

 all of this family are. 



The very handsome Orbweaver (Epeira quaclrata) was found 

 in large numbers in its snare, or in its little silken nest near by ; 

 while in close proximity were numbers of another interesting 

 species {Epeira cornuta), which had bent over the flower-heads of 

 the grasses into a coil, bending them up with silken cords, 

 forming heads somewhat similar in outline to that of a bishop's 

 crozier. Having an oblong tin-box with me, I brought several 

 of cornuta' s domiciles home with me to photograph. 



