Spiders from Some Pacific Islands, III 
The Kingdom of Tonga 
B. J. Marples^ 
The Kingdom of Tonga consists of some 
200 islands occupying an area in the south- 
west Pacific bounded by latitudes 15°S. and 
23031's., and by longitudes 173°W. and 
177°W. The islands fall into three groups, 
Vava'u in the north, Ha'apai in the centre, 
and Tongatabu in the south, the overall 
length being about 175 miles. All the islands 
are small; Tongatabu Island, 25 by 10 miles, 
is much the largest, and the total area is about 
385 square miles. Most of them^are elevated 
coral reefs and so are very low and flat. The 
highest point of Tongatabu Island is only 60 
feet above the sea. A few are volcanic islands, 
and one of these reaches a height of 3,380 
feet. During the year the maximum tempera- 
ture varies between about 75°F. and 85°F,, 
and there is a rainfall of about 80 inches. 
Hurricanes occasionally occur. The principal 
adjacent island groups are Fiji to the west and 
Samoa to the north, each 200 or 300 miles 
from Tonga. 
Spiders have been described previously 
from Tonga by Koch (1872), Berland (1934), 
and Marples (1955). Apparently, no spiders 
have been collected on the high islands. The 
present collection consists of 34 species, and 
brings the total now recorded from 31 to 49 
species. Of the spider fauna of adjacent island 
groups that of Samoa with 128 species is the 
best known. Sixty-six are recorded from Fiji, 
and, though unpublished records bring the 
total to 92, there are very many more to be 
found. The present list for Tonga is also 
doubtless far from complete, but a few com- 
1 Department of Zoology, University of Otago, 
Dunedin, New Zealand. Manuscript received July 
14 , 1958 . 
parisons can be made. 
No Uloboridae are known (not even U. 
geniculatus, which is commonly found in 
houses), as compared with three in Fiji and 
six in Samoa. There are five species of 
Thomisids, against one in Samoa and one in 
Fiji, D. praetexta occurring in all three. The 
three Epeirid genera Gasteracantha, Argiope, 
and Nephila occur in Fiji and the islands to 
the west. Gasteracantha is not known in 
Tonga, but one species of Argiope is recorded 
from Tongatabu; this is the most eastern 
record for the genus in the southwest Pacific. 
Five species of Nephila are present, and the 
genus occurs also in Niue, some 200 miles to 
the east of Tonga, and doubtfully in Samoa. 
Of the 49 species recorded from Tonga 32 
occur also in Fiji, and 32, not all the same 
species, occur also in Samoa. 
I am indebted to my wife and son for col- 
lections of 14 species from each of the islands, 
Tongatabu and Vava'u. The greater part of 
the collection was made on various islands by 
Dr. N. L. H. Krauss, and I am grateful to him 
for the opportunity of examining it. The 
specimens will be deposited in the Bernice 
P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu. 
In the descriptions the measurements were 
made with an eyepiece micrometer and are 
given in millimetres. The leg indices are de- 
rived by dividing the length of each leg by 
the length of the carapace, and the tibial 
indices, which give a measure of the stoutness 
of the legs, by dividing the combined lengths 
of the patella and tibia by the proximal 
breadth of the patella. The eye measurements 
are given in direct scale readings, so they 
indicate proportions only. 
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