220 T. THORELL, 
Of this genus, which, according to SIMON, is distinguished by the 
lamina of the palpal clava being "relevé en crête”, I have seen only one in- 
dividual, a male of the typical species, which SrwoN had the goodness to 
send me. That spider in its entire appearance agrees most accurately with 
ZElurops v-insignitus, but it differs not only by the peculiar structure of the 
palpi, but also by the far greater length of the posterior legs, especially 
the tibiæ. The claws also are particularly strongly developed: they are 
very long, even longer than those of Ælurops, slender and sinuated, espe- 
cially on the hindermost legs, where they have in front of the middle a row of 
about 12 very long, closely set comb-teeth. The claws of the 1* pair, 
whose tarsi, like those of the 2™ pair, are on the underside clothed with 
hairs dilated at the apex, are much shorter than those of the posterior pairs 
of legs, but still long, slightly and uniformly curved, with about as many 
teeth of the same form as on the following pairs, but here the row of 
teeth commences nearer to the base of the claw. The claws, especially on 
the hinder legs, are so large and visible, that both they and their pectina- 
tion may be observed with a good single lens. The hairs of the claw-tuft 
are dilated near the extremity in the posterior legs; in the 1* pair the di- 
latation is more gradual. 
Fossil spiders have in the preceding pages not be taken into ac- 
count, simply because I am not by actual inspection acquainted with any, 
and I therefore was not in a condition to form from observations of my 
own an opinion of the relations between them and now existing forms. 
Some short notices on this subject, with special reference to those extinct 
genera, Which (as far as I am aware) up to the present time have been 
published, may however be of interest to some few arachnologists, and I 
offer them the more readily, because I have not found, that in any work 
on the classification of spiders proper attention has been paid to the fos- 
sil forms. 
These animals, as the usually soft and perishable character of their 
integuments would lead us to expect, have left but few traces of their exist- 
previous to Srmon’s description loc. cit. In Kocx and BERENDT, Die im Bernstein 
befindl. Crust., Myriapod., Arachn. ete., p. 93, MENGE has, it is true, mentioned a 
Prussian spider under the name of Phidippus arenarius, which perhaps is the same 
as Yllenus arenarius Sım., but it is not characterized, and accordingly I could not 
refer to MENGE as authority for the name. 
