The YOtfRG HATtfRAMST: 



A Monthly Magazine of Natural History. 



Part 88. APRIL, 1887. Vol. 8. 



A YEAR'S SPIDER HUNTING. 



By H. WALLIS KEW, F.E.S. 



EARLY in 1886, having had a promise of assistance from the Rev. 0. 

 Pickard Cambridge, I commenced to collect spiders, for the purpose of 

 drawing up a list of the species I obtained as a contribution towards the 

 neglected fauna of the County of Lincoln, and with the view of obtaining a 

 knowledge of this interesting order of animals. A list of the 68 species 

 which were identified during the year, from the neighbourhood of Louth, has 

 appeared at pp. 55 — 59 of the February issue of the current volume of 

 the "Naturalist," to which the remarks in this paper may be considered as 

 supplemental. The following are among the species taken during 1886, ar- 

 ranged according to the situation or mode of capture : — 



Under Bark — Harpactes hombergii, Segestria senoculata, Clubiona holo- 

 sericea, Amaurobius fenestralis, Ccelotes atropos, Epeira umbratica, Epiblemum 

 ciugulatum. 



The flaking outer bark of sycamores, well known to entomologists as 

 sheltering large numbers of insects, is hardly less productive in spiders, so 

 far at least as the numbers of two species, Harpactes hombergii and Amauro- 

 bius fenestralis } are concerned. At all times of the year, the first named 

 spider is abundant under the bark of some sycamores at the village of Halling- 

 ton, near Louth; when the place was visited in January last, numerous 

 specimens were seen, which when disturbed (the slender males especially) ran 

 over the bark in an excited manner and appeared to be inconvenienced by 

 the cold atmosphere. Small specimens of Amaurobius fenestralis were plenti- 

 ful, adult examples less so. Epiblemum cingulatum, Panz. — one of the 

 "jumping spiders" — (confused together with E. scenicum, Clk. by Mr. 

 Blackwall under the name of Salticus scenicus) is plentiful in this district 

 under the bark of wooden railings and posts, and in the summer is often to 

 be found with its egg-cocoons. 



