The ''Order" Meridogastra {Anthracomarti) 139 



A'orderleib uagegliedert, Hinterleib gegliedert ; Palpen von obeii her sichtbar ' (The body 

 divided into two groups of segments ; the anterior portion of the body not jointed ; the 

 posterior portion jointed; the palpi visible from above). The insufficiency of this definition, 

 which would fit most of the orders already proposed containing recent forms, needs no 

 demonstration. It may be added that Karsch refers another genus from the Coal-formation, 

 Kreischeria Gein., to the family Troguloida; which belongs to the order Opilioncs; but this 

 genus is decidedly not properly placed amongst Troguloida? ; and we doubt very much whether 

 it belongs to Opiliones at all. 



In 1885 Scudder proposed a classification («) of the palaeozoic Arachnida known at 

 the time; he adopted the order Anthracomarti Karsch, added new genera and species, and 

 divided it into four families: Arthrolyco.sidie Harg. (which only comprises the genus Arthro- 

 lycosa Harg.), Poliocheridas (containing only Poliochera Scudd.), Architarboidae Karsch (com- 

 prising Architarbiis Scudd. with the species A. rutundatas Scudd., A. subovalis Woodw. and A. 

 silesiacus Roem. ; Anthmcomartiis Karsch and Gevaphrijuiis Scudd.), and finally Eophrynoidse 

 Karsch {Kreischeria Gein. and Euphri/nns- Woodward). In 1890 the same author published a 

 work accompanied by a series of illustrations (c) in which he does not alter his former 

 account of the order Anthracomarti, but only treats of two out of the four families he had 

 proposed, viz. Poliocherid« and Architarboidas, which latter he augments by a new genus. His 

 diagnosis of the ordei', which does not differ in any e.ssential jDoint from the one he gave 

 in 188.5, is as follows : " Body somewhat depressed, the cephalothorax and abdomen distinctly 

 separable. Cephalothorax usually made up in large part of more or less wedge-shaped pedi- 

 gerous segments, the arrangement of which corresponds to that of the coxae. Abdomen 

 forming a single mass and composed of from four to nine distinct joints. Palpi not much 

 longer than the legs and simply terminated." As regards the sj^stematic position of the order 

 he says: "Its position seems to be between the Chelonethi and the Pedipalpi, to the latter 

 of which it bears perhaps the closest relations." But everyone who is tolerably ac([uainted 

 with the structure of the skeleton in most orders of Arachnids, must be very dissatisfied 

 with a diagnosis of such a quality. It is not only that it is decidedly too jejune and vague, 

 but the statement that the cephalothorax "usually" is composed of segments corresponding 

 to the coxa; commands so much the less confidence, as it is distinctly irreconcilable with a 

 series of representations of these animals published by Scudder himself and earlier authors. 

 Finally one cannot avoid asking why Scudder assumes that the palpi are without claw or 

 chela, since on the specimens of which figures have been published the palpi are as a rule 

 so badly preserved that the point cannot be decided at all ; in most cases the palpi are 

 absent, and when they are present their termination seems to be absent, except in the case of 

 Eophrynus Prestwicii (v. Scudder, h, p. 737), which appears to possess a claw of considerable size. 

 There are other difficulties which render one sceptical. Thus Scudder depicts what he describes 

 as three specimens of Geraphrynus carbonarius (c, PI. XL., figs. 1, 10 and 12), but there is 

 no possibility of these three sj^ecimens belonging to one and the same species ; they belong 

 to at least two different genera, perhaps even to different femilies or orders. 



It was also in 1890 that Haase published a paper in which he treats in considerable 

 detail of "the 'Anthracomarti,'" submitting all the genera and species which had been referred 

 to that order before 1890 to a critical examination. His paper is extremely interesting as 

 illustrating the great imcertainty attending the interpretation of the fossil remains which had 

 been refen-ed to Anthracomarti. Amongst the genera which Scudder (b) had placed in the 



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