The phenology of linyphiid spiders on heathland in Dorset

The spatial and temporal distribution of spiders was studied by continuous pitfall trapping over a period of three years (1962–65) in three National Nature Reserves in Dorset, and in this paper additional data are presented which were obtained from one site up until 1967. A detailed description of the habitat, and its relation to the spatial distribution of the species, will be provided in a later paper. As differences in the habitat have little or no effect on the temporal distribution, this alone will be described in this paper, as in the two previous papers of this series (Merrett, 1967, 1968).