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The Scottish Zoological Park; and Other Editorial Notes

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The Scottish Zoological Park; and Other Editorial Notes CO NT EN T S The Scottish Zoological Park; and other Editorial Notes An Account of the Destruction of Methil Dock Gates by Marine Organisms (I llustrated)- J ames Ritcltie, 1J£. A., D .Sc. O n the Decrease of Blackgame in Scotland-L eonora J effrey Rinto1tl and Evelyn V. Baxter ( Contimted from p. r 3) Bird Notes from Fair Isle, r 92 6- Surgeon Rear-Admiral .f. I:!. Stmlwu se Notes on the Coccidce of Scotland- E. Ernest Green, F E .S., FZ. S. (Concluded) Notes : A Large Dog Otter- Donald Ross, 44 ; Risso's Dolphin stranded in Caithness-Dr J ames Rite/tie, 6o ; Records of large Foxes-riarry fl. Bootlt, 6o; Eastern Les s~ r vVhitethroat on Hyskeir-J olm Bain, 44 ; Leach's Fork-tailed Petrel in D umfriesshire - riuglt S. Gladstone, 44 ; Wild Geese alightin g on Trees-Alec. T. Crmvjord, 6o; Further Records of breeding of Pochard at Dudclingston Loch- Dr J. Jl£. Dewar, 6r ; The Golden Eagle in Galloway-Sir Herbe1·t Ll£axwell, 62 ; Sweden to Britain : Migration of Rough­ legged Duzzard- Einar Lonnberg, Stocldwlm, 63 ; Young John Dory off \tV estern Inverness·shire-A. C. S tepltm, 44 ; Unusual Colour Variety of Haddock- Dr J as. Rite/tie, 62. Book Notices I PUB LISHERS' NOTE. 1 The Annual Subscription for 1927, payable in advance, 12s, 6d, post free,. l should be addressed to the Publishers, Oliver and Boyd, Tweeddale Court, . ) Edinburgh. 1 COVERS FOR BINDING "THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST.•• I Special Cloth Cases for Binding the 1926 Volume can be supplied at Is. 6d. each (by post rs. 9d.), by Oliver and Boyd, Tweeddale Court, Edinburgh. t~R I N'l'~D BY Ol. l V&Il. AND UOYD 1 KDINBUROH. The Scottish ;-,!, Naturalist No. 165] [MAY-}UNE EDINBURGH: OLIVER & BOYD, TWEEDDALE COURT LONDON: GURNEY & J ACKSON, 33 PATERNOSTER Row Prt'ce zs. 3d. Annual Subscription, payable in advance, r zs. 6d. post fru 88 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST THE SPIDER FA UN A OF THE WESTERN ISLA NDS OF SCOTLAND By W. S. BRISTOWE, B.A., F.Z.S. THE July of 1922 was spent cruising amongst the islands off the West Coast of Scotland in a 16-ton yawl, and most of the time spent ashore was given up ·to the collection of spiders. Ten islands were vi sited, but in most cases I only had a few hours on each, ow ing to my companions being yachtsmen rather than naturali sts, and in this time I naturally cannot claim to have made anything like an exhaustive collection on any of them. In the present paper I have combined all the scattered records of other coll ectors with mine to form a list of the spiders known up till now fr om these islands. The islands visited in chronological order were as foll ows:- The Isles of the Sea or Garvelloch Isles (outside Scarba), Kerrera (Oban), Mull, Eigg, Rum, Skye, Priest Island and two of the Summer Isles off Ross and Cromarty, the Outer Hebrides (Lewis and Harris), and the Shiant Isles (off Lewis). On the whole the spid er faunas of the different islands up the coast of Scotland appear to be very simila r. A ll the species found on the islands a re common on the mainland ) but the converse is far fr om being true. It is said that broadly speakin g the temperature fall s I oF. for each degree of latitude north or south of the equator, and that the same fall occurs for every 300 ft. rise in altitude. The faunas of mountain tops and arctic reg ions are often compared, but in these comparisons the lowness of the temperature is usually looked upon as the limiting factor. In actual fact the mnge of temperature is probably of equal importance or, to include another factor, namely wind, which would in practice be difficult to eliminate from our consideration, we can put forward another factor of importance which can be called "exposure." It is probable that both "temperature" and "exposure" as defined above SPIDE R FAUNA OF WESTERN ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND 89 I · act as limiting factors on different species, and, whilst reali sing that they cannot really be sharply differentiated, since the temperature varies appreciably with exposure, some notes foll ow which show the effects on distribution of these two roughly defin ed factors. W eb-building spiders are restricted to the more sheltered situations on the islands. T etragttat!ta extmsa is a wide­ spread and hardy species found from the Mediterranean to L apland and from temperate to arctic North A merica. This species is common on the islands but its relatives T. so!andrz'z' and T. pz'nz'cola, although found quite far north on the mainland, do not even approach the west coast of Scotland. These species a re most common ly met with in woods . Of the 40-odd Epeirids recorded from arctic regions the majority are · restricted to the ma inlands of arctic Europe a nd A merica. No representatives at all of the family A ttidae we re found and the only one recorded in this li st is Euop!t1J'S erratz'cus, fr om A rran, which is otherwise common under stones on the mainland. A bout 20 species have been recorded from arctic regions, but these are chiefly fr om the mainlands of arctic Europe and A merica as in the case of the arctic A ttidae. The most successful forms are those which li ve under stones, etc. (Linyphiidae, Lycosidae), or in holes and burrows (Segestrz'a, Textrz~-o, Amau.robz'us and certa in Lycosid s). T hese will escape to a great extent both the li miting factors with which we are dealing. Major Hingston has shown * how on Mount E verest at IJ,ooo ft. the temperature beneath a stone va ried through only 1 2 ° F. during the t wenty-four hours, ·w hilst in the same period the temperature of th e air vari ed through 44° F. If our contention is correct, namely, that exposure is a n important limiting factor, in comparing t he faunas of mountain tops and the arctic, we shoul d make the com­ parison more especiall y with arctic islands. In the co urse of our cruise a number of mountain s were climbed, and although some were on the ma inland I give below a list of the species coll ected on each. On 8th July I climbed ·•· Geograj;ltical J ottrnal, May 1925. go THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST Halival (Rum). At the summit of this mountain, which is 2300 ft., several alpine-arctic plants grow, such as Silene acaulis and various Saxifrages. By turning over the stones amongst these I obtained the following spiders :- Robertus lividus. Crypha?ca silvicola. Leptyphantes zimmermannii. Troclzosa terrico!a. , pallidus. Tarentula pulveru!enta. Ceratinella brevipes. Nemastoma lugubre Centromerus prudens. (Opilionid). M acrargus abnormis. On the following day the weather forced us to stay in Loch Nevis, so we set out on foot to climb Ladhar Bheinn {3300 ft.). A very heavy mist descended on this mountain, however, so we had to content ourselves with a 2000 ft. one close to it. Here I collected the following :- Robertus !ividus. M acrm'gus abnormis. Leptyplwntes zimmermannii. N emastoma lugubre , erzca?us. (Opilionids). Centromerus prudens. Mitopus 11lorio. On the way down I found the webs of Epei1'a cornuta in a valley between the two mountains a few hundred feet from the summit. On 12th July we anchored in Broadford Bay (Skye) and I climbed Ben-na-Caillich (2400 ft.) which is one of the Red Hills. On the way up, at 1000 ft., I captured Lycosa traillii, which looks like an overgrown L. amentata. At the summit by turning over stones I collected the following:- Robertus lividus. M aro .falconerii. Leptyphantes zim11ler11lmmii. Neriene rubens. , w!tymperi. Pa?ci!omta g-lobosa. On our return journey we again came to Skye, anchoring this time in Loch Scavaig (25th July) and ascended one of the Cuillins, Sgurr Dubh-N ada-dheinn (3000 ft.). Conditions at the top of this mountain were very different. Vegetation, consisting of Silme acaulis, Saxifraga oppositifolia, etc., was very scarce, and the summit really consisted for the most SPIDER FAUNA OF WESTERN I SLANDS OF SCOTLAND gr part of jagged bare rock. The best part of an hour's hunting produced but three species:- l-f£!a£ra frz"g-ida . Coryphceus lw!mgnn£. ~Va!ckencera capito. When we reached Lochinver on 18th July (our turning point) we climbed Suilvin (2400 ft.). The following were collected :- Robertus lz'vidus. Pceci!oneta g!obosa. L eptyplzantes zz'mmermmmii. Tarmtu!a pulverulmta. Hz'! a ira fr£gida. N emastoma lugubre Caledonia evansii. (Opilionid). M acrargus abnormis. An examination of these lists shows us immediately that all the species are either forms which live under stones, or in the case of Tarmtu!a and Troc!tosa, burrow manufacturers which wander about on the ground when conditions are fa vourable. I noticed that just below the summit on the lee side of the mountains the number both of species and individuals always increased rapidly, and by comparing my results with those of Dr R. Jackson from some of the higher mountains of Scotland, one find s that two extremes of altitude exist in any given locality:- I. The extreme altitude at which a species will occur at the summit (limiting factor "exposure"). z. Extreme altitude below a summit (always greater than the last owing to the limiting fact or here being "temperature").
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