embryology, which offer a field almost wholly unexplored, full 
- of questions waiting to be settled by careful extended study.' 
In the study of geographical distribution other interesting ques- 
tions offer themselves. Besides the problem of the spiders of 
the South above alluded to, which ought to demand immedi- 
ate attention from some one, the great interior is almost wholly 
_ unexplored in reference to its spider fauna; Thorell’s few species 
| $ from Colorado and a few others described by Keyserling repre- 
_ Sent the condition of our knowledge of this region. From the 
| Pacific coast comes a more pressing need for study, as scarcely 
| score of species have been described from California” 
As among many groups of life forms, both plant and animal, 
there is greater need of revision of families than there is of the 
miscellaneous and often hurried description, here and there, of a 
fw “species supposed to be new” by some one only partly 
--&miliar with the literature of the subject. We can better afford 
fo wait five or ten years for a monograph of a family prepared 
PY some one who has thoroughly studied and compared the 
; Species, than at the end of the same period to be 
| Sbliged to search hither and yon for descriptions written by 
on We would not neglect to mention in this connection the valuable paper by Mr. 
i by A. Locy : “ Observations on the Development of Agelena navia,” published 
7 he Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge. , 
4 “4 SEN compare the distribution of a single family, the Epeiridæ, as now known 
of the varlous parts of America, it will probably serve as a type of the distribution 
sihen st group of the Arachnida. Of the one hundred and seventy-two de- 
- Setibed American Epeiride we have: 
Of general distributi i 2 
bac ae) on (at least east of Sierras)....cessssereerses seere 
aay distributed east of the Mississippi... .....».+.»..-- U EERE 25 
fined to Northern States i ; s... 25 
(This to Southern States (south of Virginia).......00s0++--sseeseees 
'S includes seventy-one of Walckenaer’s species and fourteen 
F entz’s not recently dentified.) 
Few, New Engl nd ( mre ees re a anana kr aaor A 17 
Poki koaa Valley (aoth). eser aeeti e T 
i 4 i f peveeceesensecenes 3 
From c ea ae (Colorado and Utah) ee 
= ne al £ sesssssose I 
Mina with these figures Simon described seventy-three species in Sere 
6s de France” and Westring thirty-four species in “ Aranee Suecicx. 
