140 The "Order" Meridogastra {Anthracomarti) 



family ArthrolycosidiB Harg., Haase refers Arthrohjcosa itself to Aranea;, which is doubtless 

 correct, whilst, with some doubt, he places Rakovnicia Kusta — which Scudder had referred to 

 Arthrolycosidffi — amongst Chelonethi. In the opinion of Thorell, expressed in 1891 {g, p. 9, 

 note 1), this genus ought to be referred to Aranete. Puliochera Scudd. was known to Haase only 

 from a short description, but he places it ijuite correctly at the side of the recent Crypto- 

 steinma, which he knew only from the account of Gervais; at the same time Haase, though 

 not without doubt, brings PoHochera to the family Troguloidse (of the order Opiliones). In 

 so doing he was in accord with the view of all earlier writers on Cryptostemma, but the 

 preceding images show how far this piece of classification was from being fortunate. Amongst 

 the Architarboidse Haase refers Architarbus rotundatus Scudd. and the genus Geraphrynus Scudd. 

 to Amblypygi, but in view of the illustrations in Scudder's later work (c) this must c\ppear 

 very doubtful as regards the majority of the species. We have already stated that the three 

 specimens, which Scudder figures as belonging to Geraphrynus carhonariiis, belong to as many 

 different species, and of these only one, the one figured on PI. XL., fig. 12, can, with any 

 certainty, be classed amongst Amblypygi\ Another species of Architarbus, viz. A. subovalis 

 Westw., Haase erects into a new genus, a new family and a new sub-order of Opiliones, which 

 he names Phalangiotarbi. For the genus Anthracomartus itself he proposes the family of Anthra- 

 coinartidse. He divides the family Eophrynidaj into two : Kreischeriidie and Eophrynidte, and he 

 proposes a further new sub-order of Opiliones, viz. Anthracomarti, to comprise the three families 

 just mentioned. The establishment of these two sub-orders and the reference of them to the 

 Opiliones is, in our opinion, quite unproved and therefore unwarranted. Guided by our own 

 pretty intimate knowledge of the structure of the dermoskeleton in all recent families of Opiliones, 

 we consider that the figures of those fossil remains, which Haase proposes to place among 

 Opiliones, exhibit several important peculiarities, which differ widely from what is known to exist 

 in the recent species, but of which the systematic value cannot as yet be appreciated ; besides 

 which it must be insisted upon that the fossil remains are so incomplete as regards im- 

 portant parts, such as limbs including antennae and the parts of the mouth, that it is simply 

 impossible on them to base a really well-founded opinion concerning their relationship either to 

 Opiliones or to any other orders. We believe that, though Haase is fully or partially right 

 in referring some members of the order of Anthracomarti to recent orders, his proposals in 

 this direction are in other cases erroneous, or at any rate for the present not capable of 

 justification. But so much must be admitted, and deserves to be noted, that he has proved 

 the order of Anthracomarti, whether in the sense of Karsch or in that of Scudder, to be 

 composed of utterly heterogeneous elements. 



Now as regards Karsch's idea of placing Cryptostemma in the family Poliocherida; Scudd. 

 under the order Meridogastra Thor." we have to make the following observations. The figure 

 of Foliochera punctulata, published in 1890 by Scudder (c), who had described the species in 

 1885, represents the dorsal surfjice of a fortunately tolerably well preserved specimen and, to 

 judge from the details which can be ascertained with reasonable certainty, we are unable to 



1 The abdomen exhibits a striking agreement with the visible when the animal is seen vertically from below. It is 



ventral surface of Phrynus, showing amongst other points true that Scudder indicates seven joints in the mutilated 



eleven distinct sternites of exactly the same shape as those palpi, but his counting is probably not more correct than in 



in Plirymis, where the ventral plate of the first of the twelve the case of the abdominal segments of which he only counts 



abdominal segments is hardly to be seen. The maudibles, nine. 



which fortunately are preserved, differ in nothing from those - This uame had been proposed by Thorell, in 1885, 



of Phrynus. Behind them only three pairs of cox* are seen, instead of Anthracomarti. 

 just as in Phfymn:, where the first pair of coxaj are scarcely 



