4 Dermoskeleton and Cephalotliorax 



out at the same time several good characters' for the family, which he placed in the sub-order 

 Op. Palpatores. 



Until then, however, all authors had been of the same opinion with regard to the 

 sj'stematic position of the genus, in so far that they had all placed it near Trogulus and 

 congeners; but in 1879 Simon erected a new sub-order comprising it and the two genera 

 Pettalus and Stt/locellus, which he only knew from descriptions. This new sub-order he named 

 Cyi^hophthalmi, but he did not indicate more than one reliable character, which could justify 

 the elevation of the group to a higher rank, and its separation from Palpatores, viz.: "Premier 

 segment ventral de I'abdomen ne d^passant pas en avant les hanches de la quatrieme paire." 

 Thorell in 1882 (c) preserved the sub-order which he named Anepignathi, but he retained 

 none of the characters given by Simon, and amongst those proposed by himself only one 

 is correct, viz.: "labium sternale nullum." In 1884 Sbrensen (d) came to the result by 

 inspecting Siro duricorius Jos. that a labium stemale existed, and that lobus maxillaris of 

 the first pair of coxse was movably connected with coxa; he therefore thought it right 

 to keep the group (or genus) amongst Palpatores. But both these observations proved to 

 be erroneous, and it is not only entirely justifiable but even quite necessary to keep the 

 group as an independent sub-order. 



In speaking of the representatives of this group, we have not referred to Gihocellum 

 sudeticum Steck. We propose to treat of this in a separate chapter. 



B. The General Structuke of Opiliones, with special regard to Cyphophthalmi. 



1. The Dermoskeleton. 



In Palpatores the chitine on the body in general is of very different thickness in different 

 groups ; in the majority of Phalangioidae it is rather thin, but in Sclerosomatini Sim. it is 

 rather thick and of a peculiar coriaceous consistency, whilst in Gagrellini Thor. it is hard. In 

 Ischyropsalidoidse, Nemastomatoidse and Troguloidse the chitine is as a rule rather firm. In all 

 Laniatores with which we are acquainted the chitine is very thick and firm, though of a 

 somewhat coriaceous consistency. In those adult Cyphophthalmi which we have examined we 

 found the chitine rather thick, in some cases even very thick and hard. 



2. Cephalothorax. 



Since the publication of Sorensen's first paper on Opiliones in 1873, authors who possessed 

 a fairly intimate knowledge of the structure of Arachnida have rarely been in doubt about 

 the boundary between cephalothorax and abdomen in these animals". In Laniatores no vestiges 

 of the boundaries between the segments which compose cephalothorax are ever visible, whereby 

 older authors were led to speak of it as " the head," such as C. L. Koch (a) who described it 

 as '■ Kopf," whilst he called the three (or four) first segments of abdomen " Vorder-," " Mittel-" 



' "Palpi filiformes, art. 5° breviore quam 4°, apice un- dorsuale et scutum ventrale coalita.'' 



guiculo muniti. Pedes breves, metatarsis et tarsis robustis - It is only in very rare eases that there is any difficulty 



et ex articulo singulo constantibus, unguiculo longo. Seg- in recognizing the boundary between cephalothorax and 



menta dorsualia et veutralia, segmento vel segmentis duobus abdomen, as tor instance in Trogulus albicerus W. S. 

 ultimis, supra et subter supra anum, exceptis, iu scutum 



