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