142 ARAXEIDEA OF ALDERNEY. 



cranium ludicrum, one of the many whose cephalic region is in 

 the male sex carried abnormally upwards, and in this case 

 backwards, some of the eyes also accompanying the movement, 

 and leaving their fellows in the normal position on the cephalic 

 ground-floor. It is difficult to account for these extraordinary 

 developments in the male sex, or to suggest what possible use 

 they may be in the struggle for food, or what advantages they 

 may confer in the various exigencies of love. They can 

 scarcely be for fighting purposes, as are the luxuriant antlers 

 in the males of the Deer tribes, though they may possibly point 

 to the greater developmental vigour of the male sex, and 

 furnish an instance of what is known as the Katabolism, or 

 general — breaking-out-in-any-direction — tendency so charac- 

 teristic of that sex. 



But even this sort of breaking-out must, in our accepted 

 theories of evolution, either be directly advantageous, or at 

 least not disadvantageous, in the energies necessary for the 

 satisfaction of the cravings of hunger, and the gratification of 

 the emotions of love, — the two main motives which, when all is 

 said and done, are directly responsible for the phenomena of 

 physical existence, not excluding that of civilised man. 



Whether perhaps the eyes in the male sex in the little 

 spiders in question, of which Walckenceria acuminata (whose 

 eyes are carried up on a tall slender tower, is a notable 

 example), being raised above the general level of ordinary 

 means of observance over the tops of the taller trees in the 

 moss-forest, can thus see further in their love affairs, and so 

 avoid the mischance of proceeding further in that direction and 

 possibly faring worse, one would not like to declare ; but at 

 any rate, even if it were so, the ability to sweep a wider horizon 

 would at some point be counterbalanced by an increasing 

 difficulty of running to and fro amongst the trees, and in this 

 way undue extravagance in head development doubtless meets 

 with some salutary checks. 



Mr. Marquand's collection now brings the total number of 

 species of Spiders (Araneidea) taken in the island of Alderney 

 to sixty-nine (69) and that for the whole of the Channel 

 Islands to one hundred and forty-two (142). These do not 

 include the Harvest-men ( Opiliones or Phalangidea) of which 

 Mr. Marquand has in his recent collection added two species 

 which are new to the Channel Islands. 



The following list contains the names of the species 

 obtained in the island of Alderney which have not been pre- 

 viously recorded, those which have not before occurred in the 

 Channel Islands being marked with an asterisk (*). 



