Spiders and Their Near Relatives 



BB. Upper finger with a less distinct ridge, below there are 

 two large teeth, a small one, then a large one. Occurs 

 in Florida. Ammotrecha cubce 



Order ARANEIDA* 



The Spiders 



The order Araneida, which includes only the spiders, is 

 discussed at length in the following chapters, to which the reader 

 is referred. The order is mentioned here merely to indicate its 

 position in the series of orders into which the Class Arachnida 

 is divided. 



Order PSEUDOSCORPIONIDAf 



The Pseudoscorpions 



The pseudoscorpions (Fig. 41) are small arachnids which 

 resemble scorpions in the form of their pedipalps and of their 

 body, except that the hind 

 part of the abdomen is not 

 narrow, as is the postab- 

 domen of scorpions, and 

 they have no caudal sting. 



The body is flattened, 

 which enables these crea- 

 tures to live in narrow 

 spaces, as beneath the bark 

 of trees, between the leaves 

 of books, and between 

 boards in buildings. The 

 cephalothorax is either un- 



segmented or crossed by one or two transverse furrows. 

 The abdomen is broadly joined to the thorax; it is broad, flat, 

 consists usually of eleven segments, and bears neither a sting 

 nor a caudal appendage. On the ventral side of the cephalo- 



Fig. 41. PSEUDOSCORPION 



•The name Araneides was proposed by Latreille as a family name in iSoCi; it was changed to Ara- 

 neidea by Leach in 1S17; and it is now spelled Araneida for the sake "I uniformity with other ordinal 

 names of Arachnida. The form Aranea. which is used by some writers was introduced by Sundevall 

 in 1833. 



t The original form of this name was Pseudoscorpitma, a family name proposed by Latreille in 1817. 

 The family aaxat'jCherttettdlS proposed by Menge in 1855 is used by some writers as the name of the 

 order; but it should be dropped. 



39 



