OR.EOPHONUS. 31 



Suborder AMBLYPYGI. 

 Genus GRJEOPHONUS, Scudder. 



1890. Grseophonus, S. H. Scudder, Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. iv, p. 453. 



Although .Scudder referred this genus to the same family of Pedipalpi as 

 Geralinura, the two genera obviously belong respectively to the two suborders of 

 the Pedipalpi known as Amblypygi and Uropygi. 



Scudder only admitted one species of Grseophonus, which he named G. 

 carbonarius ; but it appears to me to be very doubtful if the two specimens passing 

 under that name can be referred even to the same genus. The type of carbonarius 

 is an abdomen from Cape Breton and now in the Museum of the McGill College, 

 Montreal. It was described as Libellula carbonaria under the belief that it belonged 

 to a Neuropterous insect. It consists of twelve segments ; but these are unlike the 

 segments of any known Amblypygous Pedipalp, especially in the large size of the 

 first and second plates. Moreover, the segments from the second to the seventh 

 inclusive, are marked on each side near the margin by a circular impression. In 

 the Amblypygi the tergal impressions are remote from the margin. On the other 

 hand, the specimen from Mazon Creek, Illinois, upon which the genus Grseophonus 

 Avas quite clearly based, appears undoubtedly to be a Pedipalp of the suborder 

 Amblypygi. Although Scudder identified this as G. carbonarius, it cannot, on the 

 evidence, bear that specific name, as a comparison between the figures of this 

 specimen (fig. 3, pi. xl, of the above-cited monograph) and the figures of Libellula 

 carbonaria (pi. xl, figs. 2. G) will make evident. In the Mazon Creek specimen the- 

 muscular tergal impressions are in agreement with those of a Phri/nus ; agreement 

 may also be traced in many other particulars, such as the form of the carapace and 

 the position of the ocular tubercle and the muscular grooves and pits. Scudder 

 was, of course, mistaken in describing one of the chelae as complete and nipper-like, 

 its distal segments being obviously missing. It is in the structure of these appen- 

 dages that Grseophonus differs principally from recent genera of the group. Not 

 only are they comparatively short and stout, especially with respect to the femoral 

 segment, but, in addition, the axial rotation, which enables these limbs to fold up in 

 a horizontal plane in recent forms, appears to be much less marked. They are, 

 in fact, more porrect and fold in a nearly vertical plane, as was no doubt the case 

 in primitive members of the Pedipalpi when the chelfe or palpi presented greater 

 resemblance to the ambulatory limbs than is found in recent forms. This appears 

 to me to be the chief character of morphological interest to be detected in 

 Grseophonus. One other distinctive feature may be mentioned. In all the speci- 

 mens referred to this genus, where the carapace is well preserved, its anterior 

 area, bearing the median ocular tubercle, is narrow and produced. This is shown 



