John Blackwall (20 January 1790 – 11 May 1881) was an English naturalist with a particular interest in

spider Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

Life

Blackwall was born in Manchester on 20 January 1790. He lived at Hendre House near

Llanrwst Llanrwst ('church or parish of Saint Grwst'; ) is a market town and community on the A470 road and the River Conwy, in Conwy County Borough, Wales, and the historic county of Denbighshire. It developed round the wool trade and became known als ...

in north

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

from 1833 until his death. He was interested in nature from an early age, first in

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s and then

s, on which he published his first article in 1827. He published ''A History of the Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland'' (2 volumes, 1861–1864,

Ray Society The Ray Society is a scientific text publication society that publishes works devoted principally to British flora and fauna. As of 2019, it had published 181 volumes. Its publications are predominantly academic works of interest to naturalists, z ...

), which included accounts of 304 species and gave the first adequate descriptions of British spiders. Ten of the plates included were by

Octavius Pickard-Cambridge Octavius Pickard-Cambridge FRS (3 November 1828 – 9 March 1917) was an English clergyman and zoologist. He was a keen arachnologist who described and named more than 900 species of spider. Life and work Pickard-Cambridge was born in Bl ...

and twelve were by the Irish naturalist Robert Templeton. He died 11 May 1881.

Correspondence with Charles Darwin

Blackwall wrote four letters on the subject of spiders to

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

, dated 12 February 1868, 18 February 1868, 10 August 1869 and 8 September 1869. They survive in the Darwin Archive at

Cambridge University Library Cambridge University Library is the main research library of the University of Cambridge. It is the largest of the over 100 libraries within the university. The Library is a major scholarly resource for the members of the University of Cambri ...

. The first, second, and third letters are in direct response to communications from Darwin, though the whereabouts of these letters, presumably kept by Blackwall, are unknown. Their subject matter is, broadly, variation among spiders. The first letter begins

Legacy

Blackwall's work constituted a significant stage in the emergence of

arachnology Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and harvestmen. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists. More narrowly, the study of ...

. He was one of the first to be interested in spiders of very small sizes, in particular those belonging to the

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

'' Neriene'' and '' Walckenaeria''. A number of spider species are named after Blackwall, including '' Idiops blackwallii'', '' Salticus blackwallii'', '' Scotophaeus blackwalli'', '' Theriodion blackwalli'' and the

harvestman The Opiliones (formerly Phalangida) are an Order (biology), order of arachnids Common name, colloquially known as harvestmen, harvesters, harvest spiders, or daddy longlegs. , over 6,650 species of harvestmen have been discovered worldwide, alth ...

'' Leiobunum blackwalli''.

References

;Attribution

External links

Grupo Ibérico de Aracnología Bibliography

* ttps://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/143674#/summary ''A History of the Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland'' at BHL British entomologists British arachnologists Fellows of the Linnean Society of London 1790 births 1881 deaths Scientists from Manchester {{UK-entomologist-stub