LIST OF THE ARANEIDEA OR SPIDERS OF 

 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



BY REV. FREDK. O. PICKARD-CAMBRJDGE, B.A. 



The following list of the species of spiders found in the 

 Channel Islands has been compiled from six different sources, 

 whose recorded observations extend over a period of forty 

 years. The first, a paragraph in a Guernsey Guide-Book, 

 contributed by Mrs. Collings, of Sark, was published in 1863 ; 

 the last, a list kindly furnished by Mr. Cecil Warburton, of 

 Christ's College, Cambridge, of species taken by himself in 

 September, 1894. 



The first list was published by Mrs. Collings in Le Lievre's 

 " Guide to Guernsey " in 1863, as follows : — " ' Spiders.' This 

 short list of spiders has been contributed by Mrs. W. Collings, 

 of Sark, and is a mere fractional part of this numerous class of 

 insects." It contains the names of thirty-one species. 



The second was published by Mr. Francis Walker in the 

 "Zoologist" for 1864, pp. 9,273, under the title "Arachnids 

 of the Channel Islands." This list, including the names of 

 thirty-seven species, identified by Mr. Blackwall, seems to 

 have remained incomplete, for, although Mr. Walker concludes 

 with the promise that it is " to be continued," I am unable to 

 find any further mention of the " Arachnids of the Channel 

 Islands" in any subsequent volume of the "Zoologist." 



A third list, kindly furnished by the Rev. 0. Pickard- 

 Cambridge, was forwarded by Mr. Blackwall to Mrs. Collings 

 and contains the names of fifty-three species, two of which, 

 Drassus Collingii, and D. cupreus, are of doubtful value, while 

 one of them alone, * Theridion grossum, is at all rare in Eng- 

 land. The names of six species sent by Mrs. Collings to the 

 Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge on November 3rd, 1869, must be 

 added to the above. All of the species contained in this list 

 were captured in the island of Sark. 



* Since this was written I have been able to distinguish two distinct forms of 

 D. lapidosus, Wlk., both male and female ; and I have come to the conclusion that 

 one of them is the D. cupreus of Blackwall. The types whence the figures of 

 cupreus, in " Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland," were taken are still in existence, 

 and though some arachnologists might not recognise the two forms as species, I 

 find reasons for doing so which cannot be entered into at present, but are to my 

 mind quite sufficient, 



