Savory - Arachnida 1977

262 IV. DE ARACHNOLOGIA
spiders quickly became the chief occupation of his leisure. He had
many of the ideal qualifications for an arachnologist, a scientific training,
a keen eye for important detail, a gift for identification and the
energy of a successful collector. Undoubtedly his greatest service to the
science was the ungrudging help that he gave to all who appealed to him
for assistance. This generosity had its tragic side, for it absorbed the
time that might otherwise have been given to the writing of the badly
needed book on the spiders of Britain. Yet it found its reward later in
the work of those to whom he had passed on his knowledge and technique:
the writings ofBristowe, Locket, and Millidge may, in effect, be
regarded both as his memorial and as the sources of the widespread
interest in Arachnida in Britain today.
Among the contemporaries ofJ ackson were Warburton, Hull and Kew.
Cecil Warburton ( 1854-1958) spent the whole of his professional life
as a lecturer in Cambridge University. He was one of the first to make a
careful search for spiders in the famous collecting area of Wicken Fen,
and later he investigated the silk glands of Araneus and described the
life cycle of Agelena. In 1909 the Cambridge Natural History contained
his contribution on Arachnida, chapters which for many years were the
recognized authoritative source of information readily available to
English readers. After the First World War he transferred his attention
to the Acari, and at the Molteno Institute took an important share in the
production of an exhaustive treatise on ticks. He retired from his post
of zoologist to the Agricultural Society when he was 92, and at the time
of his death at 104 was probably the oldest man in Britain.
The Rev. J. E. Hull ( 1863-1960) was a north-country clergyman with
a special interest in spiders and mites. The minute spiders of the large
family Linyphiidae came especially to his notice, and much of his
work was concerned with their names and classification, as well as with
the description of new species.
Harry Wallis Kew ( 1868-1930) was for many years the chief authority
on the false scorpions of Britain and Ireland. He was the first to describe
their courtship, and to show how their different instars could be distinguished.
In this and other ways he was a pioneer in the acquisition of
precise knowledge of an unusually interesting group.
The influence of Jackson, Hull, Kew and others lives on in the continuing
and increasingly successful work of those who were inspired by
their example and helped by their advice. The results are to be seen in
the energy and enthusiasm that secured the foundation of the British
Arachnological Society, and in the existence of an up-to-date threevolume
work on British spiders, of such quality that the names of G. H.
Locket, A. F. Millidge and P. Merrett are unquestionably assured of
immortality.
31. HISTORICAL ARACHNOLOGY 263
Significant as were the efforts of Blackwall and Pickard-Cambridge
in Britain, more important events were taking place in France.
Eugene Simon ( 1848-1924) realized from a comparison of
Walckenaer's book with that of Hahn and Koch how great were the
possibilities in a study of the Arachnida of France. Quickly he passed to
the spiders of the world, a project truly sufficient for a man's lifetime.
In pursuit of his ambition Simon became a traveller and collector,
accumulating specimens wherever he went. These and the innumerable
spiders sent to him by correspondents all over the world he described in
annual papers, while at the same time he was at work on two encyclopaedic
publications, his "Arachnides de France" (1874-1937) and the
"Histoire Naturelle des Araignees" (1892-1903). The industry and
devotion that made such an achievement possible have seldom been
equalled. Simon received universal recognition as the supreme authority
on all matters connected with spiders. Unlike most zoologists, he had
also to create a systematic classification as he worked, while he surprised
everyone by his phenomenal memory of all the spiders that had
passed through his hands. His publications numbered 319 titles and his
collection was contained in over 20,000 numbered tubes.
A career of this kind was bound to influence others, who were ready
to carry on the work of the master. Thus there existed in France after the
Kaiser's War a nucleus of zoologists from whom arose a French school
of arachnologists that has ever since included some of the leaders in our
subject.
Louis Fage ( 1883-1964) was a marine zoologist at Banyuls who,
moving in 1920 to Paris, added spiders to his already broad zoological
interests. He specialized in the study of Arachnida in caves. Among his
contemporaries was Lucien Berland (1888-1962), an entomologist who
was attracted by the Arachnida. His concern was largely with the arachnids
of islands, and he made valuable contributions to zoogeography. In
addition he wrote a full, general account of the class in "Les Arachnides"
in 1932, and this, with other shorter books, did much to extend the
general interest in spiders and scorpions.
On these foundations developed the great advances in Arachnology
that we owe to such living zoologists as Bonnet, Millot and Vachon. It is
impossible to refrain from a mention of Bonnet's monumental "Bibliographia
Araneorum" which surveys all publications about spiders from
the earliest times until 1939. Equally there must be recorded the great
organization Centre International de Documentation Arachnologique,
which under the care of Max Vachon, brings together the arachnologists
of every nation.
The early work in France ofLatreille and Walckenaer was paralleled