INTEENAL ANATOMY OF THE GAMAS1D.E, 307 



mode, but it has in its favour the fact that the vag-ina is a large opening-, and tliat sueh 

 species as Gamasus crassus and G. crassijx'ft, which have not any saccuhis or correUited 

 organs, but which have a spermatheca in the vagina itself, are, as shown at ])age 29G, 

 fecundated by that opening. 



The other possil)le method is that the products of the male oi'gans arc ejected from 

 the narrow mouth of tlie capsule into tlie more or less trnmpct-shaped mouth of the 

 ringed tubes in the cuticle joining the coxa of the third leg to the morechitinized part of 

 its acetabulum, and jiass directly up the ringed tulics into the sacculus; tliis is a 

 sufficiently simple method, and is rendered more pro])ahle by the similarity of the 

 situation of the opening to tliat by wliich Astactis and many otiier Crustacea and 

 Myriapoda are fecundated, although in these cases it is also the aperture for llie 

 deposition of ova. The only objection Avhich I see to this is tlie fact that the spermato- 

 cysts found in the saccidus undoubtedly appear considerably too large to have passed 

 through the ringed tubes ; this is a serious difficulty, Init it is possible, and even 

 probable, that the ringed tul)es may be capal)le of distension, and that the spermatocysts, 

 whicli are soft bodies, are capable of compression, and can be forced through very sraal 

 apertures, just as the eggs are forced through even hard, not distensible, openings which 

 seem quite incapable of allowing them to pass. The weight of the ol)jection is also 

 considerably modified by the circumstance that it practically lias to be faced in either 

 explanation, for the large spermatocysts are found both in the cornu and the sacculus; 

 and yet in Lcelaps aciifa the tube leading from the camera spermatis to tlie cornu and 

 in L. vacua the tube leading from the cornu to the sacculus are scarcely larger in 

 diameter than the ringed tubes, and yet if the spermatocysts be introduced into the 

 vagina they must pass througli botli these tubes before they can get into the sacculus, 

 but in the sacculus they are found abundantly. 



I had hoped to settle this question by actual observation, but I have found that it is 

 not possible to see sufliciently clearly to lie quite certain whether the small end of the 

 spermatic ca^isule is applied to the opening of the vagina or to the mouth of tlie ringed 

 tube ; the whole capsule is certainly not introduced into the vagina as it is in 

 G. crassris, but the epigynum, which covers or borders the ojjening of the vagina, lies 

 just between the third legs, and therefore just between the opening of the ringed tubes, 

 and, being large, almost reaches them. In the position Avhich the male and lemale 

 occupy dui"ing the coitus, it is almost impossible to be absolutely certain \\ liether the 

 narrow end of the capsule, which lies between the mandibles of the male, is applied a 

 little more or a little less to the side ; but in the instances of //. hirsutiin which I have 

 watched it has appeared to me, as far as I could judge, that the mandibles were too, 

 far at the side for the vagina, and seemed much more like being at the mouth of th^ 

 ringed tubes. 



I have not even found spermatocysts or spermatozoa in the ringed tubes, but 

 neither have I ever found them in the vagina or oviduct of any species possessing the 

 sacculus or ringed tubes, although I find them abundantly in those situations in species 

 which have not the ringed tubes. 



It must be clearly borne in mind that in such species as G. cra.'iSiis, G. terribilis, &c.. 



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