1899] DISTRIBUTION OF THE ARACHNIDA 223 



possibly Western Asia (the Caucasus) ; Cleobis, Guatemala, Jamaica, 

 Cuba, Florida, St. Vincent, Colombia ; * Zerbina, Colombia ; Mummucia, 

 Peru, Chili, and the Argentine. 



In the eastern hemisphere these Arachnida seem to be dis- 

 tributed over three recognisable regions, the Indo - Mediterranean, 

 the Ethiopian, and the Malayan. The Indo-Mediterranean contains 

 Spain, Greece, and South Eussia ; the whole of North Africa north of 

 a line running from Senegambia on the west to the desert part of 

 Masailand and Somaliland on the east ; and in Asia, Asia Minor, 

 Arabia, Persia, Turkestan, Baluchistan, and practically the whole of 

 peninsular India as far to the south as Madras. This region, the 

 richest in genera, is characterised by the occurrence of Galeodes, 

 Rhagodes (Bhax), Biton, Blossia, Paracleobis, Gfylippus, Gnosippus, Barrus, 

 and Gluvia. 



The Ethiopian region, including Africa south of Senegambia and 

 Somaliland, is characterised by the absence of the genera mentioned 

 above and by the presence of the genera Ceroma and Hexisoptis, which 

 are peculiar, and by a host of species of Solpuga (including the nearly 

 allied form Zeriassa), of which one or two extend into the North 

 African part of the Mediterranean region. No Solifugae have been 

 recorded in West Africa between the Congo and Sierra Leone ; but on 

 the eastern side of the continent the Ethiopian fauna blends with that 

 of the Mediterranean area, owing, presumably, to the northern and 

 southern migration of representative genera. 



Apart from India, which, possibly with the north of Ceylon, forms 

 part of the Mediterranean region, we know very little, except on the 

 negative side, of the Solifugae of the Oriental region. The only genus 

 that has been recorded is Dinorhax, with possibly two species, one in 

 Annam and Cochin China and the other in the Moluccas. No doubt 

 the genus will turn up elsewhere in the islands of Indo- and Austro- 

 Malaya, and probably considerably farther to the north in the Chinese 

 area ; and since all the types recorded elsewhere seem to be entirely 

 absent, this area may be termed the Malayan, and be regarded as of 

 regional importance. 



The species inhabiting America are distributed so as to admit of 

 the recognition of two regions — a northern or Sonoran, characterised 

 by Datames, and probably Dacsia, and comprising the Western and 

 Southern States from California to Texas and part of Mexico ; and a 

 southern or Neotropical, comprising Central America, with the possible 

 exception of the Mexican plateau, the West Indies, and Florida and 

 the Andean chain in South America as far as Chili and the Argentine, 

 the representative genera being Cleobis, Zerbina, and Mummucia, all of 

 which are apparently closely related. 



* The genera marked with an asterisk are unknown to me in nature, and I cannot 

 speak with certainty as to their true taxonomic position. 



