Page:VCH Norfolk 1.djvu/205

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SPIDERS ARACHNIDA Spiders, etc. So very little research has been made in connection with members of this order, so far as the county of Norfolk is concerned, that it is not possible to consider the following account of the spider-fauna of the region under consideration in any respect a full one. For while 550 and upwards of species are recorded from England and Wales, 195 species are all that have been placed to the credit of Norfolk. That it ought to prove a rich locality however, when thoroughly well worked, cannot be doubted, if we remember that it consists of wild heather lands, semi-cultivated woodland districts and rich fen-land regions towards the east coast. It is scarcely possible to point to any one tract as more likely to repay research than another, except that in a general way wild unculti- vated districts are much more prolific than those that are highly cultured. Yet even in the latter case, where isolated areas of wild growth and forest land occur, with cultivated land on all sides, these oases are often found to be more plentifully inhabited than even huge tracts of primeval forest. Of the 188 species of spiders recorded those deserving special men- tion on account of their variety are Attus caricis, Lycosa spinipalpis, Par- dosa farrenii, Pholcus phalangioides, a species confined as a rule to the more southern counties, Steatoda sticta, Asagena phalerata, Hilaira uncata, Mengea scopiger, Araneus patagiatus and Clubiona neglecta. The localities given in the following list are well authenticated, and the initials of those who collected the specimens or recorded their occur- rence are added. The greater part of the species recorded were collected by H. W. Freston, Esq., of Kersal, Manchester, many by Lord Walsingham and others by Messrs. Linstead, F. P. Smith, James Edwards and the present writer. In cases where the generic or specific name quoted is not that under which the spider has usually been recognized in the works of English authors, a note has been added calling attention to the fact. ARANE^ ARACHNOMORPHM DYSDERIDiE Spiders with six eyes and two pairs of stigmatic openings, situated close together on the genital rima ; the anterior pair communicating with lung books, the posterior with tracheal tubes. Tarsal claws, two in Dysdera, three in Harpactes and Segestria. I. Dysdera camhridgii, Thorell. form, orange legs, dark mahogany carapace (O. P.-C.) ; Scratby ClifFs (H. W. F.). """^ P^^" clay-yellow abdomen. The palpal bulb of the male has no cross-piece at the Not uncommon under stones and bark of apex, trees, where it lurks within a tubular retreat. This spider is also known as D. erythrina. The spider is easily recognizable by its elongate Blackwall. 173