BOOK REVIEWS

C.L. Deeleman-Reinhold, 2001. Forest of South secondary habitats in the first place and many of them East Asia. With a revision of the sac and ground spiders fall into the category of synathropic species. During (Araneae: Clubionidae, Corinnidae, Liocranidae, Gna- recent decades extensive inventories have been under- phosidae, Prodidomidae and Trochanteriidae). – Hard- taken in primary forests where the earlier described back, 24.5x17 cm. Brill, Leiden, Boston, Köln. [ISBN 90- 04-11959-0]. Price EUR 164, USD 201 excl. p&p. species were hardly ever found. The author has devoted her energy to the spiders This book with its nicely designed cover comprises inhabiting the groundlayer of the forests, many of two parts. The first part, the General Introduction, is them belonging to the Clubionidae, Gnaphosidae a rather lengthy treatise not only on the characteris- and closely related families. The material studied was tics of the South East Asian forests and their collected by herself. She was also allowed to include fauna, but also on general features like the ‘History of material of other inventories, such as collections classification’, ‘Morphology and behaviour’, ‘Ene- made by tree fogging on Borneo and . Fog- mies of spiders’, and ‘How to collect spiders’. It also ging of trees brings down the specimens which live in contains a glossary of all the terms used and ends with the canopy, a separate fauna much different at the a key to all araneomorph spiders of South East Asia. species level from that on the ground and difficult to The mygalomorph spiders are wisely excluded. The inventorize with traditional collecting techniques. second part is the true systematic section of the book. About ten percent consists of Clubionidae, the sac The author has made many trips to the former spiders, while the Gnaphosidae, the ground spiders, Dutch East Indies. The zoogeographical delimitation are nearly lacking. Many canopy species have very low chosen relates to the areas and countries visited by the densities and large ranges which is thought to corre- author and her late husband and includes , late with the ballooning and bridging capacities of Malaysia and on the continent, the In- canopy spiders. Spiders are unable to fly actively but donesian archipelago as far east as the Moluccas make use of air movements combined with the pro- (where the author was born), but excludes , Sri duction of long threads of very fine and light silk to Lanka, the and New Guinea. However, overcome the force of gravity. They are lifted by air for the sake of zoogeographical understanding these currents and balloon to other tree tops, or the thread unnatural boundaries were softened by listing, but finds another substratum on another tree and the spi- not describing, genera and species from adjacent re- der walks along the one-tread bridge to wherever the gions (India, and the Philippines) and in- tread has landed. cluding all the type species of typically South East The first part ends with a glossary of all terms used Asian genera even when no species as yet were found and a key to the araneomorph spider families of trop- within the area covered. An (unnumbered) map on ical Asia. Keys to families are scarce and I am con- page 76 shows all the places where she collected spi- vinced that this key will be copied and used by many ders between 1979 and 1998. when trying to get acquainted with spiders in general The author argues that the South East Asian spider or of this particular region. Beside morphological fea- fauna largely is one of forest habitats. She estimates tures the key mentions characters like overall shape, the number of spider species of the region originally behaviour and ecological niches, which makes the key may have ranged between 20,000-30,000 and that more handy and accessible for people who are still un- most likely a large proportion has already disappeared familiar with the family characteristics. The key is due to habitat destruction through man. We will nev- well illustrated. er know how accurate this guess is because we cannot The first part clearly is written for the layman collect any more in the habitats which are gone. How rather than for the specialist and thus is in sharp con- many times have we seen this before! It reminds me of trast with the second part, which is understandable the disappearance of the numerous cichlid fish species only for the specialist with much more training and in Lake Victoria over the last thirty years because they advice than can be absorbed from the first part. were killed off by the introduced nile bass (Lates The first part of the book is, of course, an intro- niloticus). An ecological disaster with huge social im- duction to the second part, the treatise on the sac and pact. The spider species described from the region in ground spiders of the South East Asian region. The the past, mainly by Thorell and Simon, came from author has treated six families of sac and ground spi-

159 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 09:32:33PM via free access T  E,  144, 2001

ders (Clubionidae, Corinnidae, Liocranidae, Gna- six places throughout the book, but in many other in- phosidae, Prodidomidae, and Trochanteriidae) with stances such indication has been omitted, even their established subfamilies. She erected only one though somewhere in the text the transfer to another new subfamily, the Systariinae in the Clubionidae is mentioned. Castoponera ciliata (Deeleman- and kept as much as possible to the current classifica- Reinhold) (page 309) and C. scotopoda (Deeleman- tion. Each subfamily chapter ends with a review of Reinhold) (page 312) are examples of this, and there the synonymies and new combinations proposed. are many others. They lack the indication ‘comb. On the lower level the author examined the type nov.’. On page 305 it is said that Castianeira plumosa material of earlier described species if available and (Thorell) ‘may belong in Corinnomma’ but on page recognized many synonymies and wrongly placed gen- 397 the synonymy is presented as a fact. It is not clear era and species. The extensive collections assembled from anywhere in the text whether she has examined by her, together with the material she obtained from the type material or not. Agroeca kltina Barrion & others allowed her to add many new species and gen- Litsinger is tentatively listed as a synonym of Med- era. Altogether she has included 59 genera, 18 of massa tigris (Deeleman-Reinhold) (page 351), but on which new, with 178 species, 115 of which are de- page 397 it is only transferred to Medmassa. On page scribed as new. Nearly all species, old and new, are de- 199 Clubiona andamanensis is stated to be a synonym scribed and illustrated as to the genitalia and usually of Cheiracanthium turiae and one would expect this also the itself. She reports to have many more synonymy to be repeated with Cheiracanthium turiae new species the descriptions of which still have to be on page 234, where, however, it fails. This lack of made. She preferred to have the book out now and consistency will make it difficult for others to follow have the results of her studies available to others in- exactly what has been decided. Naturally, such ad- stead of adding more species and trying to follow the ministrative flaws do not detract from the scientific road to unattainable completeness. The now present- importance of the real work done, the examination ed picture of the extent and range of the families dealt and identification of old and new material, the de- with would not be principally altered. I hope she will scriptions and classification. continue her work and describe additional species and The illustrations are mostly (85%) made by the au- give us more insight in the biodiversity of these taxa. thor herself, while the others were obtained from sev- is more than describing species and eral other artists. Because the different artists have placing them in correct genera. An important part of used different drawing techniques there exists an ob- taxonomic work consists of administrative work and vious imbalance in presentation, which however is presenting all decisions about synonymies and new more aesthetic than practical. combinations in a consistent and transparent way. In the introduction Christa Deeleman says: ‘This Others should have easy access to all the nomenclato- book is written for any entomologist, arachnologist or rial and taxonomic results. Think of the people who naturalist who is interested in the South East Asian are to make species lists of certain regions or a cata- fauna, so that I may share with them my discoveries logue of the spiders of the world. In this respect the in the world of the spiders.’ I am convinced that she book has some flaws, but which book of such size has succeeded to produce just such a book. May it would be without? To give a few examples: a section come in the hands of many arachnologists and other on a species starts with the scientific name and the lovers of the living world! name of the author followed, if appropriate, by comb. [P. J. van Helsdingen] nov. New combinations are indicated in this way on

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