SOME COMMENTS ON WALCKENAER’S NAMES OF 
AMERICAN SPIDERS, 
BASED ON ABBOT’S DRAWINGS 1 
By Herbert W. Levi and Lorna R. Levi 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University 
In 1887 McCook rediscovered the Abbot drawings, basis of many 
of Walckenaer’s spider descriptions, and initiated a controversy in 
spider nomenclature by synonymizing spider names then in use. 
Emerton replied that the drawings represent the spiders in so gen- 
eral and indefinite a way that identification would only increase the 
uncertainty of nomenclature. Banks’ comments about the Walck- 
enaer descriptions were blunt: “They rank with ‘hearsay evidence.’ 
I shall not use them nor list them; I shall ignore them.” Later 
Gertsch (1933) expressed the fear that these names would be re- 
vived and cause permanent instability: “The problem at hand is not 
the question of validity, which should be unchallenged, but one of 
recognition.” In 1944 Chamberlin and Ivie made a serious attempt 
to establish the Walckenaer names en masse. Their synonymies were 
accepted by Archer (1946, 1950), Levi (1954), and Levi and Field 
(1954), but not by Gertsch (1953). We were at first inclined to 
follow Chamberlin and Ivie in using the Walckenaer names, but 
during the course of the theridiid studies, had an opportunity to 
examine the Abbot drawings. We are convinced that in the Theri- 
diidae at least, Chamberlin and Ivie were ill-advised to attempt the 
synonymies, and, indeed, that establishment of such synonymies would 
be a disservice to araneology. 
English-born John Abbot immigrated in 1776, as a young man, to 
Screven County, Georgia, and lived in Georgia for 65 years as a 
schoolmaster and naturalist. He painted birds, butterflies and other 
animals, and his drawings were sold by John Francillan, a London 
silversmith (Dow, 1914). Sixteen volumes of Abbot’s drawings are in 
the British Museum (Natural History) in London; many volumes 
'We wish to thank the following for reading a draft of this manuscript and 
for making suggestions (without implying that they necessarily agree with 
the conclusions): Mrs. D. L. Frizzell (Dr. Harriet Exline), Dr. R. Crabill, 
Dr. C. Dondale, Prof. E. Mayr, and Dr. W. J. Gertsch. Dr. Gertsch kindly 
sent us a manuscript, prepared ten or twelve years ago but never published, 
in which he discussed the problem of the Walckenaer names. Although he 
believed the names were correctly synonymized by Chamberlin and Ivie 
(1944), he pleaded their rejection in the interests of nomenclatural stability. 
Dr. Gertsch and Dr. Dondale called our attention to pertinent literature. A 
National Science Foundation grant made possible our trip to Europe in 1958, 
at which opportunity we examined the Abbot manuscript drawings. 
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