Descriptive Catalogue of the Spiders of Burma, based upon the Collection made by Eugene W, Oates, and preserved in the British Museum

Abstract

DURING his residence in British Burma, in the capacity of civil engineer, Mr. E. W. Oates availed himself of the rare opportunities of travelling, afforded by his official duties, to investigate certain portions of the fauna of the country, choosing as objects of special study such diverse groups as Scorpions, Whip-Scorpions, and Spiders; Centipedes and Millipedes; and Birds. It was, we believe, primarily his intention to work out all his collections himself upon his return to England on furlough. In fact, while still in the East he published, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, descriptions of his new species of Whip-Scorpions (Thelyphonus), and shortly after his arrival, his paper upon the Indian and Burmese species of Scorpions of the genus Isometrus appeared in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. But further than this, his studies in the invertebrate portion of his material did not go; and realising the impossibility of grappling in the space of time at his disposal with the vast number of species of spiders and myriapods that he had procured, he generously presented these in their entirety to the Trustees of the British Museum, and devoted his energies to the study of the Birds of British India and Burma, of which he had already acquired considerable knowledge. In the course of the next few years, the Centipedes and Millipedes were determined and reported upon in a series of memoirs that appeared in the Annali del Museo Civico di Genova. The spiders, however, were, at Mr. Oates's request, submitted for examination to Dr. T. Thorell, who had already made himself an authority upon Burmese Arachnida, in connection with the study of the material of this group amassed under the auspices of the Marchese G. Doria, by that practised collector, Sig. L. Fea. But although the Italians, n the persons of Sigg. Fea and Comotto, had had the first bite at the Burmese Arachnid fauna, the careful sorting and examination of Mr. Oates's collection soon showed that this gentleman had more than doubled the number of known Burmese spiders. For whereas only 175 species had been previously recorded, the total number now amounts to no less than 381. Mr. Oates's collection thus contains 206 species that are new to Burma, and of these 153 appear to be new also to science. It comprises, moreover, either the males or females of many species of which only one sex had been hitherto described. The secret of Mr. Oates's success as a collector of spiders is to be attributed partly, of course, to his paying special attention to them, but largely to his ingenious mode of attracting them. He tells us that—

Descriptive Catalogue of the Spiders of Burma, based upon the Collection made by Eugene W. Oates, and preserved in the British Museum.

By Dr. T. Thorell (London: printed by order of the Trustees, 1895.)