Araneae. 



93 



flocculent web, as on an autumnal day in England. The ship was 

 sixty miles distant from the land, in the direction of a steady 

 though hght breeze. Vast numbers of a small spider, about one- 

 tenth of an inch in length, and of a dusky red colour, were attaclied 

 to the webs. There must have been, I should suppose, some 

 thousands on the ship. The little spider, when first coming in 

 contact with the rigging, was always seated on a single thread, 

 and not on the flocculent mass. This latter seems merely to be 

 produced by the entanglement of the single threads. . . ." 



Spiders are divided into two sub-orders : 1. Mesothelae. 

 2. Opisthothelae. 



Table- 

 cases Nos. 

 22 23. 



Sub-Order I.— ^lESOTHELAE. 



In the Mesothelae the spinning appendages consist of two Table-case 

 pail's of biramous limbs, which are situated far in advance of the ■'^°' ^^' 

 anus, immediately behind 

 the pulmonary sacs. The 

 abdomen is distinctly seg- 

 mented, the upper surface 

 being furnished with a 

 series of eleven tergal plates, 

 and its ventral surface with 

 two large plates overlying 

 the pulmonary sacs, and a 

 number of small plates 

 behind the spinnerets. 



In the segmentation of 

 the body and in the position 

 of their spinnerets, the 

 Mesothelae differ from all 

 other living spiders, and 

 resemble certain extinct 

 (Carboniferous) types {Pro- 

 tolycosa, etc.). There is but 

 a single family with two 



genera (Liphistius and Anadiastotlielc), which occur in Burma, 

 Malacca, and Sumati-a. Specimens have been captured in the 

 depths of limestone caverns in Malacca, and it is possible that 

 the apparent rarity of these spiders is due to their restriction to 

 a cave habitat. A specimen of Liphistius (Icsultor is exhibited in 

 Table-ease 22. 



Fig. go. 

 Lipliistiuii dcs/iltor. 



