SCORPIONS, PEDIPALPI AND SPIDERS COLLECTED BY 

 DR WILLEY IN NEW BRITAIN, THE SOLOMON ISLANDS, 



LOYALTY ISLANDS, etc. 



By R I. POCOCK, 



OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



With Plates X. and XL 



The Arachnida forming the subject matter of the following pages are referable to 

 49 species. Of these a large majority (namely thirty-six) was collected in New Britain, 

 six only being obtained in the Solomon Islands and nine in the Loyalty Archipelago 

 and on the Isle of Pines. All the species met with in the last-mentioned localities 

 prove referable to previously described forms ; but of the six brought from the 

 Solomon Islands two appear to be new, and of the 36 from New Britain no fewer than 

 14 are undescribed, so that the total number of species novae collected amounts to 16, 

 that is to say, nearly 35 per cent, of the whole collection. 



Dr Willey's researches in the Solomon Islands add three species to the list 

 recently published by me 1 , namely, one Scorpion {Archisornetrus perfidus), one Pedipalp 

 (Thelyphonus leucurus) and one Spider (Lt7ius alticeps). 



From the Archipelago of New Britain, including New Ireland, Duke of York 

 Island and New Hanover, the following species had been recorded in 1881 (see 

 Thoiell, Ann. Mus. Genova, xvn., pp. 684 — 711): — G 'aster ■acantha panisicca, Butl. ; G. 

 pentagona, Walck. ; G. studeri, Karsch ; Argiope brownii, Cambr. ; Argiope picta, L. Koch; 

 Argiope pentagona, L. Koch ; Epeira trigona, L. Koch ; E. gazellae, Karsch ; Nephila 

 maculata, Fab. ; Heteropoda vidpina, Cambr. ; Heteropoda peroniana, Walck. ; Pahjstes 

 ignicomus, L. Koch ; P. pinnotherus, Walck. Of these 13 species, Gasteracantha panisicca, 

 recorded by Mi- 0. P. Cambridge, is probably identical with the species Thorell sub- 

 sequently described as G. karschii, and Heteropoda vulpina described by Mr O. P. 

 Cambridge is, in my opinion, identical without doubt with Palystes ignicomus of 

 L. Koch. It is further possible that the specimens referred to Argiope pentagona by 

 Karsch are identical with those that Mr Cambridge described as A. broiunii, the two 

 species being closely related. 



Keyserling subsequently recorded the following species from New Ireland: — Gaster- 

 acantha violenta, L. Koch ; G. mollusca, L. Koch ; Cyclosa insulana, Costa, and Argyro- 

 epeira grata, Guerin ; and since the majority of those contained in Thorell's list also 

 came from New Ireland or New Hanover, and the Duke of York Island, the exact 

 locality of the specimens collected by Mr Brown being apparently doubtful, it is clear 

 that the material brought by Dr Willey from New Britain is of considerable value 

 from a faunistic point of view seeing that practically nothing was previously known 

 of the Arachnid fauna of that island. 



1 Ami. May. Nat. Hist. (7), I. pp. 457—475, 1898. 



