510 ; and fresh additions aro constantly being made to this total 

 by myself and others. 



The primary object of the work, however, is to give an 

 account of Dorset spiders. Now local lists are of chief value, 

 when the locality has some well-defined natural boundaries, and 

 has been fairly woll searched. The former can scarcely be 

 predicated of the County of Dorsot ; it is not divided from the 

 neighbouring counties by any vory well defined natural limits, nor 

 can its whole area be said to have boen well searched in respect 

 to spiders ; and yet, if I mistake not, the present list will be 

 found in future to represent very fairly the spider-population of 

 the County ; because thoso parts of it which have been best 

 worked, include (in rospect to soil) its throe principal districts — 

 the Chalk and Limestone, the Heath, and the Clay. It is in tho 

 first two of these districts that we find the most peculiar ento- 

 mological fauna ; and very many of the spidors found in them 

 are also more or less peculiar and local. 



As a matter of fact by far the greater part of the known 

 spiders of Dorset have been found in the parish of Bloxworth, 

 and its immediate neighbourhood ; the rest (with a very few 

 exceptions) havo beon obtained in the Isle of Portland. 



The parish of Bloxworth forms a long strip of land about 3 J- 

 miles in length by about 1£ in breadth, running longthwise due 

 north and south. Tho southern extremity of this tract of land 

 (taking it roughly in three, aboiit equal, portions) consists of 

 sandy and gravelly heath, with a considerable mixture of marsh 

 and bog land. The central portion is a clay loam, with a large 

 amount of wood and coppice land ; and tho northern division 

 is loam upon chalk. Those three districts are similarly continued 

 on each side of Bloxworth, oast and west, for many miles. Tho 

 Isle of Portland, being of tho limestone formation j 

 produces, as a general rule (and making allowance for its 

 sea-board), the insects and spidors peculiar to the chalk districts. 



Out of tho 510 species of spidors at present known to inhabit 

 Great Britain and Ireland 358 have been found in Dorsetshire. 

 Of the remaining 152, nine only have been recorded in Ireland, 



