ON EUROPEAN SPIDERS. 39 
I begin then with that family, not because I consider it to stand higher 
than others, but for the same reason, for which, when systematically treat- 
ing, for instance, the Class of Fishes, one usually goes out from the 
Teleostei or Bony fishes, and not from the undoubtedly far higher organized 
Selachie [and Dipnoil. I am far from persuaded that the family Epeiroidze 
really includes the highest forms within the Order Araneæ. If we had only 
to take account of the development of the instincts, we might, in consi- 
deration of the more artistic construction of the webs of the Epeiroidee, 
place that group above the other families of the Order; but then again, if 
we consider, as we reasonably ought to do, more the harmonious develop- 
ment of the body’s various parts, the superior development of the organs 
of sense, and suchlike, we soon see that the Epeiroidæ, with their weak 
cephalothorax and heavy abdomen, their slow and clumsy motions, their 
comparatively small eyes, etc., are surpassed by more than one of the 
other families, usually looked upon as lower. Generally speaking, the 
opinion that spiders which build a web, are higher animals than those 
which hunt their prey, seems to be unfounded. Those which are most 
perfectly organized ought to have the higher rank assigned them, and it 
appears to me difficult to show, that in that respect the weavers in any 
way take precedence of the hunters. The family Theraphosoide or Mygalide, 
which surpass all other spider-families in magnitude, form through Li- 
phistius desultor SCHIODIE, which is destitute of spinners and has the back 
of the abdomen covered with jointed horn-shields, a connexion with the 
Phrynoidæ and Scorpions, which I believe must be considered as more 
highly organized animals than spiders ). The Lycosoide, and in a still 
1) I do not however consider the remarkable agreement between Liphistius and 
Phrynus as proving that that genus has any nearer affinity (depending on a closer 
propinquity of descent) to Phrynus than other spiders have, but I only consider 
it as an example of the analogy that can exist between groups of animals not inti- 
mately related. In the case of spiders this is not a solitary example. Anetes cc- 
letrum MENGE (Verz. d. Danziger Spinnen, p. 71), which is said to stand in near 
relation to Arcys among the Thomisoide, is without spinners, like Liphistius. The 
relationship which Vinson believes to exist between the Epeiroid genus Arachnura 
Vins. (Aran. d. Iles de la Réunion ete., p. 289) — in which genus the abdomen is 
drawn out into a kind of tail — and the Scorpions, depends upon a similar, only still 
weaker analogy. Mac LEay mentions (On some new forms of Arachn., p. 5) "a 
singularly flat and minute, hard-shelled, six-eyed spider with a sessile abdomen", 
which is met with in Cuba, and which he considers as forming the connecting link 
between spiders and Acari. Here perhaps we have an instance of true affinity 
between spiders and a lower group: indeed the Order of spiders is undoubtedly no 
