THE ORDER PALPIGRADI THor. 
(KOENENIA MIRABILIS Grassr) 
AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE OTHER ARACHNIDA 
BY 
H. J. HANSEN AND WILLIAM SORENSEN. 
(Plate 4.) 
Certainly the most interesting addition which the class of 
the Arachnida has received for many years is the tiny animal 
described by Grassı! under the name of Koenenia mirabilis; 
it is from Italy”, a country in which perhaps other unknown in- 
teresting Arachnida will be discovered in the future. There are, 
! Grassi, B.: I Progenitori dei Miriapodi e degli Insetti. Mem. V. In- 
torno ad un nuovo Aracnide Artrogastro (Avexenia mirabilis) rappresentante 
di un nuovo ordine (Microthelyphonida). (Bull, d. soc. entom. Italiana. Anno 
XVIII, Firenze 1886, p. 153—172.) 
? As far as we know, it occurs only in southern Italy; in Sicily (off Ca- 
tania) it was found by Grassı (who had looked for it in vain in the north 
of Italy and in the south of Germany). He says (p. 153) that >it lives in the 
campagna of Catania under stones which have not been moved for a pretty 
long time, and which lie in heaps hidden beneath the branches of Indian figs; 
in these places there is always some moisture, yet never too much, which two 
conditions are necessary to the life of our little animal. It lives together with 
Fapyx, Campodea, Pauropus and Scolopendrella. But while (perö mentre) these 
animals are found beneath the first stones which are removed, our form scar- 
cely ever occurs in the superficial layers.... It looks like a small scorpion 
and has a kind of tail which it curves upward almost as the scorpion bends 
its post-abdomen. It is very active. Its colour is on the whole whitish and 
the animal is almost transparent.» — The specimens which our Museum -pos- 
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