ANCESTRAL SriDERS AND TIIEIK IIAIIITS. 



453 



fact may be readily seen by comparing Berendt's numerous figures of tbe 

 well preserved amber spiders with examples from corresponding genera. 

 (See Fig. 373, compared with Figs. 376 and 377, and the full i)iige cut 

 further on.) 



The Florissant fossils are of course not so well preserved, but some of 

 the specimens retain their characteristics with sufficient distinctness to 

 compel the same conclusion. Scudder's figures, as they are disiilaycd upon 

 his plate, might well stand for good drawings of a misrelhuu-ons collec- 

 tion of damaged specimens of our living sjjiders. Compare his figure of 

 the fossil Orbweaver Epeira meekii, for example (Fig. 375), with our inmiliar 

 Epeira strix (Fig. 376) or Epeira insularis (Fig. 377). 



Oldest 

 Know^n 

 Spider 

 Fossil. 



Fk;. 375. Fig. 376. Fig. 377. 



Pig. 375. Fossil spider of Florissant, Epeira meekii. (After Scudder.) Fig. 376. E.xistiug spider 

 Epeira strix ; male. Fig. 377. Existing spider Epeira insularis ; male. 



Turning to the oldest known fossil aranead, Protolycosa anthrocoi)hila 

 Rumer, we are brought face to face with a species closely related to exist- 

 ing fauna. (Fig. 378.) Protolycosa belongs to the Carbonifer- 

 ous, being found in the argillaceous slate of Kattowitz, upper 

 Silesia. 1 Fig. 379 is an enlarged drawing, and Fig. 3S0 is an 

 outline restoration by the author. Romer placed the fossil near 

 the genus Lycosa of the Citigrades, which rank among the highest 

 of the araneads. Thorell, on the ground of tbe extremely coarse and short, 

 strong legs and palps, assigns it to the Territelarias, which puts it within 

 a closely related group, in which we have found the largest existing spiders, 

 Theraphosoida3, the Tarantulas, and such also as possess the highest me- 

 chanical instincts, as Trapdoor spiders. The first apparition of the spider 

 is therefore by no means that of a low examjile, but one rather which 

 presents a plenitude of faunal characteristics, and gives the possibility of 

 high industrial skill. 



Moreover, Protolycosa is- nearly related to a living species. Thorell 



points out its marked resemblance to Schiodte's wonderful East India genus 



— ™ 9 



1 Neues Jahrbuch fiir Mineralogie, Geologie und Palaeontologie, Jahrg. 1866, images 136- 

 U3, Taf. III., Figs. 1-3. 



