OCR Text |
Show 1876.] REV. O. P. CAMBRIDGE ON EGYPTIAN SPIDERS. 511 3. Catalogue of a Collection of Spiders made in Egypt3 with Descriptions of new Species and Characters of a new Genus. By the Rev. O. P. CAMBRIDGE, M.A., C.M.Z.S., and Hon. Memb. New-Zeal. Institute. [Received May 31, 1876.] (Plates LVIII.-LX.) Since the time of Savigny, who, in conjunction with Audouin (A.D. 1809-13), figured and described about eighty-four species of Araneidea in his great work on Egypt, very little has been done in this particular branch of Egyptian zoology. The chief, if not all, of the later additions to the known Spiders of those regions are several species of Drassides (a portion of the present collection) published in the 'Proceedings' of the Zoological Society, 1872, pp. 224-247* and nineteen others of the same family and collection, likewise published in the Zoological Society's ' Proceedings,' 1874, p. 370 et seq. Dr. Ludwig Koch also records and describes, in * iEgyptische und Abyssinische Arachniden,' Niirnberg, 1875, nineteen species of Araneidea, found near Cairo by Herr C. Jickeli. Egyptian entomology in general appears to have received comparatively little attention, considering the great number of tourists and naturalists who have visited the Nile during the last fifteen or twenty years; Probably this has arisen in a great measure from the superior attractions offered by the birds of that rich ornithological region; a strong and very decided love of Insects and Arachnids would be required to make these more attractive to most travellers than the numerous feathered tribes. There are regions of the world where the size, the number, and the beauty (or ugliness, as it m a y be) of the Insect and Arachnid orders almost oblige the most indifferent observers to note and collect them ; but Egypt is decidedly not such a region. W e have a strong proof of this in a lately published lecture on the Rambles of a Naturalist in Egypt, by Mr. J. H-. Gurney, jun.; a notice before m e of this lecture says, " M r . Gurney briefly alluded to the entomology of the Country, which appears to consist of fleas, flies, and mosquitoes." It would argue a tough skin, and indifference to entomology indeed, were a naturalist, or any other traveller, to pass over these without notice, so very close and persistent are their attentions; and perhaps more attention would be paid to entomology (in a wider sense) were their attentions rather less pertinacious. As it is, however, the "fleas, flies, and hiosquitoes" are numerous and persistent enough to make it impossible to escape them, while others of this class (Spiders included) are comparatively scarce, and, generally speaking, so little attractive, from their usually small size and sombre colouring, as to require close observation and careful search to obtain any thing like a fair representation of their indigenous forms. Still any naturalist with PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1876, No. XXXVI. 36 |