320 Prof. T. Thorell on Dr. BerthaiCs 



" vulva" is not chitinized, but destitute of those horny parts 

 which in descriptive Avorks is generally called ejjigyne {saro, 

 Menge). As this character in the female corresponds with a 

 peculiarity in the shape of the male palpi (their tarsal joint has 

 in Teiragnatlm and Pachygnatlia a long movable hook jointed 

 to its base, which is absent in the males of the true Epeiroidfe*), 

 it may be reasonable to separate the Tetragnathoidag, Menge, 

 with Pachygnatha, from the EpeiroidjB, as a separate family. 

 Pachygnatha is, however, on the other hand, very nearly 

 related to certain spiders generally included in the genus 

 Meta ; this is shown, for instance, by the Pachjgnatha VetMi, 

 Van Hass.f, which is not a Pachynatha, but a true Epeiroid. 

 An unchitinized vulva is also found in all Territelarise, 

 Dysderoidffi, Filistatoidas, and Scytodoidas, the males of which 

 groups are distinguished by their simple, completely chitinized 

 palpal bulbus ; but the bulbus has this same structure also in 

 certain Epeiroida3, as NepMla and Nepliilengys, the females 

 of which have a chitinized viilva ; and these modifications in 

 the organs of copulation appear therefore, curiously enough, 

 to be of rather subordinate importance. 



As we have already seen, Bertkau divides his Tristicta into 

 two great groups, Grihellata and Meromammillata, according 

 as they are provided with, or destitute of, the unpaired spin- 

 ning-organ called by Blackwall cribeUum,the presence of which 

 is always united with that of a number of peculiarly formed 

 and symmetrically disposed hairs on the metatarsi of tlie last 

 pair of legs, forming the organ called by Blackwall the calamis- 

 trum. All spiders which possess these organs were by Blackwall 

 united into otie family, the Ciniflonidae, and Bertkau has now 

 not only gone back to Blackwall's opinion of the systematic 

 value of the organs in question, but has raised the Cinillonidfe 

 or Cribellata into a group of higher rank, divided into no less 

 than nine families {B, p. -^37) — Zoropsididse, Miagrammopidge, 

 Filistatidse, Ql^cobiadai, Dinopidaj, Uloboridas, Dictynida, 

 Eresidae, and Amaurobiada?. Now it may at first view appear 

 strange that not all, or at least many, of those arachnologists 

 who have occupied themselves with the classification of the 

 Spiders have maintained Blackwall's Ciniflonidie as a family, 

 or even as a group of higher rank ; more especially as the 

 cribellum and calamistrum are not only of importance in the 

 economy of these animals, but the cribellum, as Bertkau 

 remarks {B, p. 339) , " is not an ordinary pair of spinners, 



* See Emerton, " New England Spiders of the Family Therididse," in 

 Transactions of the Connecticut Academy, vi. pp. 297, 298 (1884). 



t Midden Sumatra, Reizen en Ondersoekingen der Sumatra Expeditie, 

 etc. iv. 11, A. Aranese, p. 32 (1882). 



