48 Organs of Excretion 



whilst Tulk, who thought that he had noticed two pairs, was of opiuion that they " perhaps 

 exercise some salivary function." Plateau was the first author who found organs in Phalangium, 

 which he declared to be excretory organs, viz. one pair of tubes which according to his 

 investigation opened into the rectum. 



Sorensen, on the contrary, found in Laniatores (6, p. 171 seq.) a pair of very delicate, 

 undivided, very long tubes of which the inner, blind extremity was situated in front of 

 the posterior borders of the third pair of coxae ; from thence they pass along the ali- 

 mentary canal, forming several loops on the upper as well as on the under surface of 

 it, and finally open into a pair of large elongated bladders at a rather acute angle. 

 The bladders are situated under the alimentary canal and open to the outside in the 

 margin of the dorsal side of cephalothorax just behind the orifices of the odoriferous glands, 

 above the second pair of coxae. These openings, which are very small, can be seen 

 from the outside in many Laniatores, amongst others in all Gonyleptoidse. Later on Loman 

 (a, pp. 43 — 49) found a pair of tubes in Phalangium which were said to form an elongated 

 loop of which both ends opened into a pair of urinary bladders, situated in the same place 

 as in Laniatores. This statement was fully confirmed by Rossler (p. 679). Sorensen, however, 

 afterwards investigated the matter in Phalangium and satisfied himself (c) that these 

 two authors had failed to see the real openings of the tubes into the urinary bladders, 

 and that only one of the extremities of each of these tubes opened into a bladder, whilst 

 the other is closed^ consequently that the arrangement so far was the same as in 

 Laniatores. Loman had not at that time succeeded in finding the orifices of the urinar}' 

 bladders on the outer surface of the body, nor did either Rossler or Sorensen succeed in 

 doing so. Afterwards, however, Loman (c). whilst admitting that only one extremity of 

 these tubes opens into the bladders, announced that the outer opening of the bladders in a 

 Gagrella is situated in the space between the third and tlie fourth coxa. Sturany has confirmed 

 this, having found (p. 15) in a Platylophvs that the urinary bladders open in the posterior 

 wall of coxae of the third pair of legs. We have examined the structure in Phalangium 

 opilio. The opening is here placed a little nearer to the proximal than to the distal end 

 of the third coxa, near the anterior margin of the strip of thin rather broad skin which 

 forms the bottom of the space between the third and the fourth coxa. We must add that 

 these glandular tubes are thicker and much shorter in Palpatores than in Laniatores. The 

 urinary bladders into which they open are easily seen on fresh specimens, when distended 

 by the liquid, but in spite of their size they are not easily found on specimens preserved in 

 alcohol, apparently because they always collapse, being emptied when the animal is killed in 

 a liquid. It is certain that in Cyphophthalmi, as in other Opiliones, there are no other 

 tubular organs in connection with the alimentary canal than the diverticula of the mid-gut. 

 From this it follows that Opiliones do not po.ssess any organ which can be considered 

 as fully homologous with the Malpighian tubes of Insects,' which open into the rectum. 



In the Cyphophthalmi which we have examined we have found that these glandular 

 tubes, of which a portion is figured in PI. I., fig. 1 t, t, are very short, and in particular 

 shorter than those in Palpatores. We have not been fortunate enough to see the bladders, 

 but when we took out the tubes, we succeeded in getting one of them free in its entire 



1 As it has been stated by Faussek in a paper which that in all the specimens examined by us, belonging to any 

 •we have been unable to consult, that the glandular tube in of the three sub-orders, the interior end of the tube was 

 Phalangium terminates interiorly in a sac, we should add found closed. 



