2 Historical Introduction, 



mentioned by anyone in connection with Opiliones. Four years later E. Simon found a new 

 species in Corsica which he described as Gyphoplithahm^s^ corsicus {a, p. 240). It was not 

 till 1879 when Simon had re-discovered Latreille's Siro rubens in France itself that he (b) 

 refen-ed the European species to the old generic name of Latreille, giving at the same time 

 a diagnostic description of the three species of that genus then known, which in almost all 

 respects must be pronounced excellent. This number was increased by Joseph, who three 

 years after described a new species (c, ]). 20) under the name of Siro cyphopselaphus, which, 

 however, undoubtedly must form a separate genus. 



Meanwhile an Asiatic representative of the group Cy^ihophthalmi had been described by 

 Westwood in his sjilendid Thesaurus entomologicus under the name of Stylocellus sumatranus, 

 and in the following year Cambridge described a species from Ceylon under the name of 

 Gyphophthalnms [Fettaliis] cimiciformis. In 1882 Thorell described (c) two species from 

 Sumatra and Java, for which he proposed the generic name of Leptopsalis, because misled 

 by a couple of errors and a lapsus calami in Westwood's description of Stylocellus, he did 

 not venture to refer them to this genus. Afterwards, however, Thorell (d, p. 106) rightly 

 judged that they really belonged to Westwood's genus, and even suggested that one of his 

 species might be identical with Westwood's St. sumat7nnus, but in this latter respect he 

 was mistaken. In 1890 (e, p. 381) he established the new genus and species Miopsalis 

 pulicaria from Pulo Penang, and finally in 1897 Pocoek (b) described a new species of each 

 of the genera Pettalus and Stylocellus. 



Amongst the eleven species hitherto described, we know from personal examination seven, 

 in part through the original types, besides which we have become acquainted with seven 

 new ones, and we are consequently able to add considerably to the number of described 

 species. We do not, however, look upon this fact as the principal feature of our paper, 

 because there can be no doubt that Southern Asia in particular is rich in these animals, 

 whose rarity in the European Museums is probably due to their small size and, as it seems, 

 hidden mode of life. That the family is als(j represented in America we know from a 

 drawing of a North-American species, which Professor Thorell has kindly lent us, but we 

 have been unable to obtain any specimen from that part of the world. The important 

 advantage we have had consists in this, that we have been able to examine at one and 

 the same time a greater number of genera and species than any previous writer. We have 

 thus been enabled not only to acquire a more comj)rehensive knowledge of these animals 

 than any of our predecessors, but also to enter into several questions, which they have either 

 overlooked, or been obliged to leave unsolved. Besides this we have had the advantage of 

 having so many specimens at our disposal of at least some species, belonging to 3 (4) genera, 

 that we could afford to sacrifice one or more for an analysis of the dermoskeleton, and in 

 this way arrive at a truer appreciation of the mutual relations of the genera of C^^i^hoph- 

 thalmi, as well as of the position of this sub-order with regard to the two other sub-orders 

 of Opiliones, viz. Op. Palpatores Thor. and Op. Laniatores Thor.^ We have constantly 



' In 1896 Hamann reproached Joseph severely for not to say antediluvian descriptions of various Opiliones, only 



having referred his new species to Latreille's Siro. If, how- proves how limited his own information is. 



ever, he had known that three of the most leai-ned Arachno- - For the benefit of readers who may not be quite familiar 



logists of our time, Simon, Cambridge and Thorell [a, p. 469), with the systematic grouping, we mention that to Palpatores 



likewise had forgotten Latreille's description he would belong the common Harvest Spiders and nearly all the 



scarcely, however anxious to decry his predecessor's merits European Opiliones, whilst Laniatores are represented in 



in regard to the European Cave-fauna, have levelled against Europe only by a few species of the genus Phalanyodes 



Joseph this reproach, which, in connection with his own so Tellkampf, but are numerous in warmer regions. 



