The Singapore
Science Centre Guides achieve a high standard so it is a considerable
honour as well as a great pleasure to write a foreword to the Guide
to Common Singapore Spiders.
Although Singapore
no longer "swarms with tigers" as it did 100 years ago
when Thomas Workman visited the island, the spiders that he saw
are still there. Indeed, it is astonishing to a visitor how much
jungle and secondary forest the people of Singapore have managed
to preserve on their small island. There is a wealth of fascinating
spiders, many of which have not been properly described and whose
way of life is unknown. For example, it is only recently that the
burying of her eggs by Nephila
maculata was discovered. No other araneid is known to behave
like this.
Populations of insects, spiders and the like survive in smaller
reserves than are needed by the big mammals. They are in their way
even more interesting, being less like human beings. Spiders are
to be found everywhere, in houses, in gardens, on wayside trees,
as well as in Nature Reserves. They are to be found in all countries
(possibly except Antarctica) and the students of spiders need never
be bored!
This is the first available book on the spiders of Singapore or,
indeed, the whole of S. E. Asia and the appearance of such an excellent
introduction to the subject is greatly to be welcomed.
Frances Murphy
Vice-President of the British Entomological and Natural History
Society
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