British Arachnological Society

The Newsletter No. 42 March 1985

REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION On the size of spiders' eggs On my last journey to the Comores I came across a large population of the rather peculiar spider Atrophonysia intertidalis Benoit & Legendre which is a barychelid living in the tidal zone, as its name suggests (the male of the species is not known). At the Yme I collected the animals, several had egg cocoons with no more than 1 to 4 eggs. What I thought to be extraordinary is the size of these eggs: 2.5 mm. It seems to me that this is exceptional, but as I know very little about spider eggs, I am not sure it really is. I would appreciate if someone could let me know whether other spiders are known to produce eggs of that size. Dr R. JocquQ, Musee Royal de L'Afrique Central. B 1980 TERWREN, Belgium

Type specimens of Schizomida James R. Reddell and James C. Cokendolpher are tying to finish a catalogue to the Schizomida (fossil and Recent species). They are currently trying to unravel the histoy. and present depository of all type specimens. Two specimens remain unaccounted for in their searches: male cotype of Schizomus insignis Hansen, in Hansen and Sorensen, 1905, from the Island of Martinique; and holotype of Schuomus formicoides Fernando, 1957, from Sri Lanka. As the latter type was apparently retained in the author's (E. F. W. Fernando) collection at Colombo, Sri Lanka, information on the current whereabouts of the Fernando 'Arachnid Collection' would also be useful. If

In format, style and design these two books are complementary. Both are vey handsome publications and they make an attractive pair. It will be obvious to everyone that within the scope of about 200 pages these two volumes can provide only a vey incomplete introduction to their subjects and this is made clear by the authors in their texts if not in their titles.

The Preston-Mafhams' brilliant colour photographs are quite beautiful and the sharp definition of the enlarged shots of these small invertebrates is remarkable. This achievement would be even more obvious and helpful if the scale of magnification had been included in the captions. The excellent pictures show the animals in the acts of feeding, courtship, and mating. Others provide fine examples of cryptic form and colouration. Some of the ant-mimicking spiders, which prey upon their models, so closely resemble them that a pair caught in the act of mating might easily be mistaken for one of these myrmecomorph spiders with its prey! The plate 6.6 showing the web of the spider Linyphia triangularis and plate 3.1 of the Australian trap door spider have been reproduced upside down and plate 4.2 of Nephila clauipes mating in a horizontal position should surely have been depicted vertically. The chapter on the classification of spiders of the world is limited to sketchy information for 26 Families and excludes all the mygalomorph spiders. An appendix at the end of the book lists a total of 71 Families with nothing about their world distribution. There are chapters on the Structure of spiders, Life history, Prey capture, Defence mechanisms and Spiders and man.

anyone knows the whereabouts of these specimens they Anthony Wooton's book on insects is similar in style are requested to write Mr Cokendolpher. They would also and has on Anatomy and movement, Life be interested in hearing from anyone that they have not histories, Senses and communication, Colouration, already contacted about collections (small or large) of Migration, Parasites, Social insects, Courtship, schizomids. Reproduction and Classification. This final subject is so J. C. Cokendolpher. Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech vast that this, understandably, has been limited to useful University, LUBBOCK, Texas 79409, U.S.A. information about insect families. Each of the two books East Anglian Spider Records Following the account of the natural history of an ancient wood in Cambridgeshire (Hayley Wood: Its History and Ecology: Ed. Oliver Rackham, Publ. Cambs & I. of Ely Nat. Trust) the same group are preparing accounts of two further ancient woods. BUFF WOOD (MR 295 513) belongs to Cambridge Botanic Garden and is about eleven miles WSW of Cambridge. Permission is via Peter Orriss (Tel. 0223 358144). Secondly, BRADFIELD WOODS about five miles SE of Buy St Edmunds (MR 92-60-), are a group of ancient woods around the village of Bradfield St George, administered by the Suffolk Trust for Nature Conservation. Permission is via Richard Woolnough (Tel. 0728 3765).

If any members can contribute information, observations or records of the spider faunas of any of these localities I should be very grateful.

has a short glossary of terms and a brief list of books for further reading.

The variety of form, character and patterns of behaviour acquired by invertebrates through the process of natural selection is truly enormous. Many of these fill us with a feeling of wonder at their beauty and with incredulous amazement at their bizarreness. These two volumes are not for the specialist who could be critical about their contents. They are aimed at the general reader seeking introductory information and as such they are interesting and entertaining publications which are absorbingly easy to read. Each dust jacket has two large superb colour photographs.

J. Edward Milner. 60,Crouch Hall Road, LONDON. N.8