BRITISH HARVEST-SPIDERS 181
BRITISH HARVEST-SPIDERS
BY J. H. P. SANKEY, B.SC, F.Z.S.
[Being the substance of an address delivered November 26th, 1949]
INTRODUCTION
HARVEST-SPIDERS rank among the lesser-known animals
of our fauna. The purpose of this paper is to show that
these arachnids are as interesting as some other groups of animals
which have a wider popular appeal. And I venture to suggest
to the true naturalist that a note-book full of one's personal
observations is more valuable than a cabinet-drawer full of pretty
creatures.
My observations have been made during the past ten years.
I have been assisted by information from my friend, Mr. D. G.
Brown, b.sc. Dr. Valerie Todd has kindly allowed me to quote
from her excellent thesis. This I do without detail as I under-
stand some of her work is in the course of being published. This
author has contributed much to the knowledge of our harvest-
spiders. Despite the writings of many authors and records of
observers my conclusions in some cases can only be interpreted
as tentative. Further work on sense perception and other physi-
ological problems of harvest-spiders needs to be done. Over
two thousand records of my own have advanced our knowledge
of the ecology of these animals. More county records are needed
to show the true lateral range of certain species. In this our
knowledge has been considerably extended in a recent paper by
Dr. W. S. Bristowe (1949). Since the appearance of this paper I
have been able to add a number of other records, thanks to the
willing help of many of my students and other friends. I quote
these records here without repeating those in Dr. Bristowe's
paper in which he gives 561 new county records of his own,
together with all the records hitherto known for the British
harvest-spiders including some earlier ones of my own.
Excepting my own, the accompanying photographs were
specially taken for me by the late E. J. Bunnett, m.a., from speci-
mens which I sent him during 1941 and 1942. The excellence of
these reproductions is testimony to his painstaking work. I am
also indebted to Dr. W. S. Bristowe for his encouragement and
kindness in reading through this paper.
TAXONOMY AND CHARACTERS OF HARVEST-SPIDERS
The Phylum Arthropoda (animals with jointed limbs) embraces
a number of classes of which, excepting the Insecta, the Arachnida
is probably the best known. In Arachnida there is a hard outer
skin (chitinised exoskeleton), the head and thorax are fused into