72 Gihocellum a Creation of Sleeker s Fancy 



Stecker, before he wrote his second treatise, had learnt that this was not admissible, because, 

 as is universally lield, all Condylopoda have the eyes on the first segment of the body. 

 In his second paper therefore Stecker writes (6, p. 297) : " Against the correctness of such 

 a division the fact might be adduced, as regards our animal, that the elevation takes its 

 rise between the eyes, so that one e3'e would have to be reckoned to the head, the other 

 to the thorax ; I must, however, observe that the elevation certainly seems to take its rise 

 between the eyes ; but that it already is found on the ventral side on wliich it is sligJitly 

 turned backwards, after which it ajipears again on the dorsal surface at the posterior margin 

 of the posterior ocular protuberance." But the statement which we have printed in italics 

 implies an absolute impossibilitj', both in the nature of things and because this "elevation" 

 on the ventral side in that case would have to extend right across the coxse (cf. PI. XVII., 

 fig. 2). This Stecker has overlooked in his anxiety to cover his former thoughtlessness^. 

 This utterauce may properlj^ be compared with his above-mentioned statement on the re- 

 construction of the chitinous layer of the skin ; that in both cases he has confidently relied 

 on the heedlessness of his readers would be clear to us, eveu if we had not fully under- 

 stood how recklessly absurd his statements really were. 



2°. In the text he says {h, p. 307), " Although the coxae are firmly coalesced with the 

 parts of the thorax...," which implies that the coxje are immovable. Nevertheless the 

 trochanters of the first and second pairs of walking legs (i.e. the third and fourth pairs of 

 limbs) are figured iu PI. XVII., fig. 1, as very distant from each other, whilst in fig. 2 they 

 appear rather close together, so that the second pair of legs are placed much fiirther back 

 on the animal according to fig. 1 than according to fig. 2. Yet both these figures are 

 described as " ad nat. del." It is clear enough that the difference between the two figures 

 is much too great to be attributable to deficiency in the art of drawing, however considerable. 



The foregoing suffices in our opinion to prove that Gihocellum sudeticum is altogether 

 a creation of Stecker's fancy ; in what follows we shall endeavour to show how it has been 

 built up. As regards the outer shape Stecker's model was no doubt Cyphophthalmus duri- 

 corius Jos. which, however, he had never seen, and knew only from description. In order 

 to establish a generic difference between that and Gihocellum, the latter was equipped with 

 two pairs of stalked eyes, two pairs of .spiracles, and with spinning maraill*. As regards 

 the internal structure we must first remind our readers that at the time when Stecker's 

 papers were published Phalungium and a few nearly allied genera of Phalangioidai were 

 practically the only Opiliones" that had been anatomically examined, so that as regards anatomy 

 a reference to OjDiliones was tantamount to a reference to Phalangium. 



Stecker attributed to Gihocellum the nervous system of Phalangium with the difference 

 that the two large abdominal trunks are said to be separate from their origin in Gihocellum, 



1 There are many other instances of this kind, of which about the chitiuogenous membrane in C(/;)7io;)/((/ia;mH.5 is quite 



we shall only mention one here. An attentive reader of new, and implies therefore that Stecker himself examined 



Stecker's passages concerning Cyphophthalmus duricorius an animal which as a matter of fact he had never seen. 



Jos. (for instance what he says on p. .309 in (ft) on the subject - The only information, at that time available, on the 



of the mouth) cannot fail to recognize that Stecker has never anatomy of OpUiones outside Phalangioidie was contained in 



seen this animal. Nevertheless he says (a, p. 232), "Whilst the memoir which we have cited, by Sir John Lubbock, in 



in the Scorpions, many Chemetidfe and the genus Cyphoph- which an account is given of the internal sexual organs of 



thalmus, there is a very thick chitinogeuous membrane, and NemastoiiKi higuhre 0. Fr. Miiller. 

 the secretion takes place so rapidly...'' But this information 



