136 Differences according to Age in Ricinulei. Sgsfemafic Position 



not only Michael'.s description (b, pp. 294 — 296) of the remarkable manner in which the 

 male in Gamasina? forms and by means of antennte transfers the spermatophore, but the 

 investigations of Birula' render it "probable" that in Solifugoe the copulation is likewise 

 carried out by means of spermatophores. 



Differences according to Age. We have already mentioned that the large sternites of 

 the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth segments are distinct in young animals, but coalesce in 

 the adults, as also that the portions of soft skin which intervene between the firm portions 

 of the large tergites of the fourth, fifth, and sixth segments are noticeable in adults only 

 as extremely nari'ow strips, whilst they are comparatively large in the young. In the 

 smallest of our specimens of Cryptostemma Sjostedtii, their length (the distance between 

 their anterior and posterior margins) was equal to that of the second tergite. There is 

 also a difference in colour, the young animals (often exhibiting a dirty yellow tint) being 

 much lighter in colour than the adults, which in the great majority of species are dark 

 reddish-brown or nearly black. Gryptocellus Simonis being a good deal brighter coloured 

 than the other species, we must state that the young are easily distinguished from the 

 adults by the distal end of the tibial part of the palpi, which is considerabl}' darker 

 than all the rest of the palpus in the young, whilst the whole palpus is uniformly 

 coloured in the adults. A comparison between PI. VIII., fig. 3 d, which represents the 

 palpus of an adult male, and fig. 3 e which represents the palpus of our smallest specimen 

 of the same species, shows that the palpus of the adults is stouter, and much more richly 

 granulated than in the young animal, and also that the shape of the tibial part is somewhat 

 different. 



In nearly full-grown specimens the number of tarsal joints is the same as in the 

 adults'-, viz. 1, 5, 4, 5; but in our smallest specimen of Cr-yptostenirna Sjostedtii, which 

 measured 4"2 mm. in length, whilst the adult male measured (5'9 mm., the numbers of the 

 tarsal joints were 1, 4, 3, 2 (PI. VIII., figs. 3 m and 3 I); in a small specimen of 

 Cryptostemma crassipalpe, measuring 2'7 nun. in length (we do not know the adult of this 

 species), the numbers were 1, 5, 4, 4. From this it may be inferred that these animals 

 moult at least three times. 



10. The systematic Position of the Family Ciyptosteminatoidce and of the 



Order Ricinulei. 



The majority of earlier writers on the genus Cryptostemma (or the family of Crypto- 

 stemmatoidfe) have referred these animals to the order of Opiliones. We cannot help thinking 

 that in so doing they must have been guided in no small measure by a certain, though 

 not very striking, simikmty between Cryptostemma and Trogidus, in the general aspect, and 

 such points as the depressed appearance and uneven surface of the body, the relative length of 



1 We do not know Birula's treatise (XJutersuchunRen showed only one tarsal joint on one leg of the fourth pair ; 



liber den Ban der Gesehlechtsorgane bei den Galeodiden, in in one specimen this was the case with the left leg of that 



Horas Soc. Ent. Ross, vol, 28, 1894, pp. 283 — 326) except pair, in the other it was the right leg. The joint in question 



through the extract given by Stadelmann in Arehiv f. Natur- was furnished with its usual two claws, which were well 



geschichte, Jahrg. 61, ii. 1895, p. 5'i. developed, and it was similar in shape to the tarsal joint on 



- The two specimens we had of Cnjptostemvta Afzdii the first pair of legs. 



