194 ENTOMOLOGISK TIDSKRIFT IQOI. 



marks I wish to quote. We (Dr. W. S. and I) wrote on p. 238: 

 »Of course, when being acquainted with only one species of a 

 group of higher rank, it is very difficult to decide which cha- 

 racters would define the genus and wiiich the family. Nor will 

 we attempt to lay down diagnoses of the genus Kocncnia or the 

 family Kocnenoidcc, for if we have considered ourselves capable 

 of pointing out the most essential characters defining the order 

 Palpignidi, it is due in a great measure to the fact that we 

 possess some knowledge of the other orders. ^Ve do not think 

 it at all likely that Kocneiiia mirabilis should be the only now 

 living animal of the order Palpigradi. Only when knowledge 

 of new forms is obtained, and particularly of rather deviating 

 forms, it will be possible to say with absolute certainty if the 

 principal characters of the order — consecjuently our view of it 

 ■ — are correct». At the present time I have examined six spe- 

 cies from various parts of the world, and therefore I am now 

 able to point out a number of characters defining the species 

 K. mirabilis. Some of the features which I now make use of 

 as specific characters are described in the text of the paper 

 above referred to, others (for instance the relative length of some 

 of the joints in the appendages) are seen on our figures, and 

 only a lesser number are (juite new — but I am still unable to 

 lay down diagnoses for the genus and the family, and the study 

 of my five new species deducts nothing from and alters absolu- 

 tely nothing in that portion of our older text, in which we set 

 forth the principal external characters of the order Palpigradi. 

 In 1899 Dr. F. Silvesiki secured a specimen of Koini7iia 

 near Valparaiso, and published a note: Distribuzione geografica 

 della Kocncnia mirabilis Grassi ed altri Artropodi .... (Zool. 

 Anzeiger, B. XXII, 1899, p. 36g — 71). The animal in question 

 I describe here as K. chilcnsis n. sp. He also communicates 

 three new localities (in Italy and Tunis) for the real K. mirabi- 

 lis — In 1900 W. M. Wheeler discovered Kocncnia in the 

 vicinity of Austin, Te.xas, and subsequently published an inte- 

 resting paper: A singular Arachnid {^Kocncnia mirabilis Grassi) 

 occurring in Texas (The Amer. Naturalist, Vol. XXXIV, Nov. 

 1900, p. 837 — 50). He had captured a large number of spe- 

 cimens, and the title of his paper shows that he believed them 



2 



