98 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.iu 



chiefly upon the characters of the typical genus, and some of the 

 original criteria must now be modified or restricted. However, at 

 least one statement still holds true for the family as now known: 

 "Posterior gonopods with telopodite simple and mostly bladelike with 

 no separate inner piece; basal region often more or less extended mesad 

 at an angle suggestive of condition in the Trigoniulidae." It was also 

 remarked that the shape of the collum distinguishes atopetholids from 

 the true Spirobolidae of North America, but this character is not ex- 

 clusive to the Atopetholidae. Most regrettably, the paper contained 

 no figures of the gonopods, the reason being given that "Preliminary 

 accounts of these and three other new forms . . . are given below 

 in order that the names may be validated for early use." But nearly 

 40 years passed before any of the species were ever mentioned again, 

 even nominally, in the literature. 



In the following year (1919) appeared a paper by Johann Carl, re- 

 describing some of the type specimens of Saussurean species, which 

 were still unknown with respect to their important characters. Carl, 

 who found that actually two species had been originally included in 

 Julus nietanus, described the second species under the name negledus, 

 and proposed the new genus Saussuroholus for the two. He also 

 presented clear and useful illustrations. He remarked on the similar- 

 ity of the gonopods to those of typical trigoniulids, a comment that 

 influenced most of his successors. 



A few years later Chamberlin described two additional atopetholids, 

 Atopetholus angelus in 1920 and Onychelus nigrescens in 1923. The 

 latter species was illustrated, and the figures give a fair impression of 

 the gonopod characters. 



By 1926, the family was still virtually unknown, as it was then im- 

 possible to associate Saussuroholus with the typical genus; it is small 

 wonder that Attems could only note the existence of the name 

 Atopetholidae, with its originally included genera, in the "Handbuch 

 der Zoologie." Following the statement by Carl, Attems placed 

 Saussuroholus in the family Trigoniulidae, where it has remained to 

 this day. 



With the description of Piedolus utus by Chamberlin in 1930, an- 

 other form was added to the atopetholid roster, but unfortunately this 

 name fell into obscurity and was not mentioned in several subsequent 

 lists of genera until its inclusion in the checldist of Chamberlin and 

 Hoffman in 1958. Subsequent to Piedolus, no other atopethohds 

 were described until 1938, when Karl W. Verhoeff, publishing on ma- 

 terial received from southern California, named Onychelus michel- 

 bacheri as a new species, erected a family Onychelidae on the basis of 

 the single form, and stated that the name Atopetholidae was a nomen 

 nudum. He obviously had not seen Chamberhn's 1918 paper. 



