108 Guide to Arachiiida. 



Table-case legs of the first pairs, but the legs of the posterior pairs have 

 two claws (except in the family Triaenonychidac, in which all 

 the legs are furnished with a single claw, which differs, however, 

 from that of the Palpatores in being armed with lateral processes). 

 The Laniatores (see Fig. 70) are divided into a number of 

 families and have a wide distribution ; they are mostly tropical 

 forms and are especially numerous in South America. A few 

 small species occur in Europe and North America. 



Sub-order II.— PALPATOEES. 



In the Palpatores the palp is slender and the claw is small and 

 weak ; it is used as a tactile organ. A single claw is present on 

 the legs of all four pairs. 



The sub-order Palpatores, which is cosmopolitan in distrilnition, 

 and comprises almost all the European species, is the only one 

 wliich has representatives in Great Britain. There are twenty- 

 three or twenty-four British Opiliones, and nearly all of them 

 belong to the family Phalangiidae. One of them {Phalangiinn 

 opilio) is common on walls, and other species are abundant under 

 stones, amongst herl)age, grass, etc. 



Perhaps the most remarkable of the 

 members of this sub-order are those be- 

 longing to the family Trogiilidae. They 

 are hard-skinned forms and have the 

 front part of the cephalothorax produced 

 forwards to form a hood, which conceals 

 the mouth and chelicerae. Two genera 

 (Anclas7)iocep]iahis and Trogulus) belong- 

 ing to this family have l)een found in this 

 country. 



Fig. 71. Sub-order III.-ANEPIGNATHI. 



Styloccllufi sumatranns. „ p ,, , . j_ . t .• 



^2 One ot the most miportant distni- 



guishing characters in these Opiliones is 



the position of the orifices of the stink-glands, wdiich are placed 



on the summit of prominent cones or tubercles. By the earlier 



students of the group these cones were mistaken for stalked eyes. 



The palp is slender and its claw minute. 



There is a single family, the Sironidae, the members of which 



chiefly occur in the J^ast Indies and Ceylon. A species has also 



been found in South Africa, and another on the West Coast of 



