any contributor to 'The Zoologist' could inform me of localities in Berkshire in which the Sand-Lizard occurs, I should be obliged.—W.H. Warner (Fyfield, near Abingdon, Berks).
ARACHNIDA.
The Distribution of the Diadem Spider.—It is generally taken for granted, I believe, that Aranea diadema, Linn., the so-called Common Garden Spider, is uniformly distributed throughout this country. A collecting experience of some years' duration in various counties in the South of England had impressed this idea upon my mind, and the material that has passed through Mr. O.P. Cambridge's hands prompted his statement that this Spider "is found in all parts of Great Britain and Ireland." I was therefore surprised to find no trace of it at Kilnsea, a small village near the extremity of the promontory that ends with Spurn Point, in Yorkshire, where I collected in the latter half of August—a time when this Spider is in full force in the localities it frequents. That the physical features of Spurn Point contain no element likely to be inimical to the welfare of a species so adaptive in its habits as diadema is attested by the presence of such allied forms as A. quadrata, A. cornuta, &c., which were met with in some abundance; nor, so far as could be ascertained, had there been any exceptional climatic occurrences during the previous spring and winter to account for its local extermination for the time being. The object of this note is to draw attention to the probability that we have yet something to learn on the negative side respecting the distribution of this well-known species, and to induce those who have the opportunity of investigating the point to ascertain its range in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and other parts of the east of England, especially in places where the soil consists of boulder clay.—R.I. Pocock (Brit. Museum, Nat. Hist.).
