224 ENTOMOLOGISK TIDSKRIFT 1897. 
however, certain points in Grassi’s treatise which might easely call 
forth a doubt whether he has been quite successful in his conception 
of the animal, e. g. his idea that besides the six pairs of limbs 
usually found in the Arachnids, it possesses two pairs of rudi- 
mentary »antennz»; his illustrations of the appendages which do 
not at all resemble the limbs of the higher Arachnida; and his 
rather superficial mention of the other known orders of this class. 
So it was quite natural that one of us (H. J. HANSEN), during 
his stay in Southern Italy and Sicily in the year 1893, should 
pay special attention to this peculiar little animal which repre- 
sents a particular order of Arachnida. As he was also success- 
ful in detecting a tolerably large number of specimens, we 
agreed to submit it to a renewed examination, which, in our 
opinion, would be of interest. We find that, in spite of the 
great ability evinced by Grass! in his researches, his real object 
was in fact only to exhibit the new order represented by his 
species; he cannot be said to have given an exact description 
of the animal itself, and his figures are very unsatisfactory. 
We therefore feel bound to state at once that, properly 
speaking, it is only a personal opinion of ours, if we consider 
the animal we have examined to be identical with the one de- 
scribed by Grass. To give an instance: Grassi’s fig. 12 and 
his description (p. 155) of the cheliceræ differ so much from 
what our specimens have shown us that — if the animals were really 
different -— we should certainly be justified in establishing ours 
as a new genus, But as Grassi’s figures on the whole are ra- 
ther bad, we suppose that the difference is only apparent, and 
sesses were taken in Calabria, partly near Palmi, partly at a height of about 
300 M. near Scilla. In the former place it occurred, though far from fre- 
quently, in an olive wood and in a somewhat moist soil. It appeared on the 
under side of stones which had been lying a long time in the same place, 
and which as a rule were not too large to be lifted with one hand. In spite of its 
lack of eyes, it was often capable of very quickly slipping in under particles of earth. 
The animal was exceedingly difficult to catch and is very frail, especially the 
flagellum which terminates the abdomen, so that we do not possess a single 
specimen with the complete number of joints in the flagellum, though the ani- 
mals were handled with the greatest care and caught with a very fine brush 
dipped in alcohol of about 60 °/,. Near Scilla it lived under stones in copse 
wood, but it was rare. (In the environs of Messina it was looked for in vain ) 
2 
