He was a keen arachnologist who described and named more than 900 species of spider from a large collection that he made with contributions sent to him by correspondents from around the world.

George Pickard, rector and squire of Bloxworth: the family changed its name to Pickard-Cambridge in 1848 after receiving the property left behind by a relative, Charles Owen Cambridge, of Whitminster House in Gloucestershire.

Octavius was tutored at home by the poet William Barnes, after failing to receive admission to Winchester College.

This passion for arachnids was probably fostered in 1854 in which year he both accompanied the entomologist Frederick Bond on a visit to the New Forest in Hampshire and was introduced to the writings of the arachnologist John Blackwall, with whom he struck up a correspondence, meeting for the first time in 1860.

[7] He travelled again in 1865 with Bradshaw, this time meeting Herrich-Schäffer in Regensburg and in Nurenberg, he met Ludwig Koch and spent several days examining the spider collections made by him and his father.

[8] Pickard-Cambridge published extensively on spiders between 1859 and his death in 1917, his major work being the volume on arachnids in the Biologia Centrali-Americana between 1883 and 1902.