384i MK. II. M. BEENAKD ON THE 



XII. Reproductive Organs. 



TJw Female Oi-gans. — The female reproductive organs do not depart from the well- 

 known Arachnidan type. Two spacious ovaries run along each side of the abdomen. 

 Posteriorly they end blindly in tbe 6th or 7th segment, or, curling, they end blindly 

 somewhere in the 2nd or 3rd (PI. XXX. fig. 11, i. e. if this figure is not that of a male, 

 see below). Anteriorly, they narrow to form the much-folded chitin-lined oviducts, which 

 enter a common atrium, also chitin-lined. 



This atrium, the walls of which are much folded, aj)pears to be attached anteriorly by 

 muscles to the diaphragm, and is rather spacious posteriorly. In one of my series of 

 sections [Rhax nigrocincta) it is distended with blood-plasma (?). In this same specimen 

 the oviducts run along the lateral wall of this atrium and open into its posterior 

 portion. TJie external genital apertui'e, on the other hand, is at its anterior end. 



This aj)erture is a longitudinal slit between the genital opercula. The thin cviticle of 

 the inner edges of the opercular folds is often jwotruded to form a pair of lips (PI. XXIX, 

 tigs. 7, 8, 9, 10). 



I have not satisfied myself as to the exact position of the aperture *. There seems to be 

 considerable variation. I found several of the specimens in the British Museum with a 

 sHt-like aperture anteriorly betAveen the genital opercula (PI, XXXIV. fig. 15, g'). If 

 this anterior opening is the genital apertui-e, then the posterior {g") may be the openings 

 of the glands marked gg, PI. XXIX. fig. 11, and PI. XXXIII fig. 4. In other cases 

 there can be no doubt that the genital aperture is between the posterior lip-folds, and 

 that the glands open within it and on each side of it (23). Bii-ula makes no mention 

 of any more anterior opening. 



The only trace of accessory glands which I have discovered is the pair of glands above 

 mentioned, just within the genital apertiu-e (PI. XXXIII. fig. 4<,gg). They lie within the 

 cavities of the opercula themselves. Birula suggests that these may be receptacula 

 seminis, but this I doubt. The semen is contained in spermatophoral envelopes which 

 find theu" way in enormous numbers into the oviducts themselves. These pockets Avould 

 not hold more than one or two at the most. Prom the position of these glands, I am 

 myself disposed to consider them as liomologous structures with the cement- and spinning- 

 glands of the Pedipalpi {cf. gg, PI. XXIX. figs. 11, 13). Bu-ula describes other glands f. 



The ovaries are covered by unstriped muscle-fibres, which in Galeodes ater (Bir.) and 

 Ai^meiodes (Pall.) consist, according to Birula, of a layer of circular and a layer of longi- 

 tudinal fibres. In my own specimen, tliis appears to be rather an irregular felt. The 

 epithelium is short and columnar, with large oval nuclei (PL XXXIV. fig. 16). The 

 oviducts and the atrium are covered with a very thick layer (felt) of muscle-fibres, which, 

 in some cases at least, are clearly transversely striated. 



The eggs are found developing as buds on the outer wall of each ovary, i. e. not on the 

 side turned towards the longitudinal axis of the body. My material is not well enough 



* la the sijecimen of Ehax nigrocincta above mentioned, by a curious abnormality, the genital aperture occurred 

 asymmetrically at the aide of the body, along the dorso-lateral edge of the right genital operculum. 



t The recent paper by Birula has thrown welcome light on many points connected with this subject. His 

 connected account makes the fragmentary character of my own contribution less a matter of regret than it 

 would otherwise have been. 



