202 Indian Arachnoidea. [No. 4, 



One of the most important works for the study of Indian Arach- 

 noidea is Savigny's excellent figures in the " Descript. Scient. 

 de 1' Egypte," although his number of new species will have to be 

 greatly reduced, if Walkenaer's identifications prove to be correct. 

 With the very wide geographical range, which many species of spiders 

 are known to possess, I expect Western India will have a great 

 number of identical species with Arabia and Egypt, the Southern 

 portions of the Peninsula with Ceylon and partially also with Mauri- 

 tius, the Southern Burmese and Malacca country with the Philippine 

 and other islands of the Indian Archipelago. There are undoubtedly 

 some Western Indian species the same as the Arabian, and probably 

 European, but I have as yet so very few materials from that part 

 of the country, that I abstain at present from quoting specific 

 names ; a list of them will be given in due time. Of the Arachnoid 

 fauna of Bengal and the North Eastern provinces we scarcely know 

 anything, for only very few species appear to have as yet found 

 access into European collections. I may here remark that the dis- 

 tinction of the faunas which have been pointed out in the verbebrate 

 animals between Western and Eastern India, — the one with an admix- 

 ture of African, the other with that of Malayan types, — appears to 

 be fully confirmed through the study of the Aeachnoidea. It is 

 really remarkable that in examining a collection of spiders from our 

 Eastern frontier, together with another made in Western India, often 

 scarcely a single species will be found to be identical to both parts. 

 Bengal has a strong admixture of Malayan types, and several species 

 are common to it and Assam and Burma. The Western Hymalaya 

 mountains possess in the Arachnoid fauna a prominently European 

 character, as their general climate would lead us to expect, the 

 Eastern Hymalaya probably contain some Chinese or Malayan types, 

 but of this we know exceedingly little. 



It is strange that not only dislike, but a real enmity and ill-feeling 

 against Arachnoids, seems to have taken hold of men's minds. " Un- 

 heeded, or regarded with repulsive loathing by the ' cui bono' 

 people of the present generation" says an able writer* who did 

 observe many a magnificent tropical Arachnoid ! No doubt, the few 

 species which secrete a poisonous fluid in special glands, and through 

 * Dr. A. Adams, in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1847, XX, p. 289. 



