386 Senry Woodward — On a Fossil Arachnide. 



" Fig. 2. (writes Dr, BucHand) Mr. Samouelle considers this 

 extinct fossil species to approach most nearly to the Brachycerus 

 apterus of Africa." 



Dr. Buckland then proceeds (vol. ii., p. 76), to give a minute 

 description of the fossil, which, from its imperfectly preserved state, 

 had been mistaken for a Curculio, and concludes by naming it 

 Curculioides Prestvicii, in honour of Joseph Prestwich, Esq., F.R.S., 

 the Geological historian of the Coalbrook-dale Coal-field (see Trans. 

 Geol. Soc, 1840, second series, vol. v., p. 413), and the present 

 President of the Geological Society of London. 



An examination of the very perfect specimen found by Mr. HoUier 

 shows it to be an Arachnide, and not a Coleopterous insect at all ; the 

 dorsal surface (only a fragment of which is seen in Mr. Anstice's 

 specimen), being quite perfect in Mr. Hollier's example, shows at once 

 that it is not furnished with elytra, as supposed by Mr. Samouelle, 

 whilst the insect, as a whole, is divided into cephalothorax and 

 abdomen, as in spiders, instead of into three parts, head, thorax, 

 and abdomen, as in beetles. Four pairs of ambulatory legs and a 

 pair of palpi are preserved. The dorsal surface of the abdomen is 

 ornamented with numerous smooth rounded tubercles, the largest 

 of which are arranged in five principal lines, the median one 

 forming pentagonal groups of tubercular ornaments down the centre 

 of the body. 



There is evidence of nine somites on the dorsal, but only 

 seven are visible on the ventral aspect, the others being pro- 

 bably concealed beneath the broad basal joints of the posterior pair 

 of limbs. The ventral surface is destitute of ornamentation, but is 

 marked by about six pairs of stomata or trachea placed in a linear 

 series down each side. 



The dorsal surface of the cephalothorax is very tumid, and its 

 centre is marked posteriorly by two, and centrally by three raised 

 lobes covered with minute tubercles ; the front of the head is some- 

 what prolonged, so as to form a rostrum. The lateral border is 

 deeply indented, forming three rounded lobes on each side, which 

 are finely granulated on their surface. The legs are also seen to be 

 minutely scabrous on their upper surface. 



The posterior border of the abdomen bears four short stout spines, 

 two on either side the ultimate segment, which bears on its ventral 

 aspect the eiferent orifice. 



The cephalothorax on its ventral aspect is much indented, and 

 exhibits the very broad basal joints of the last pair of appendages, 

 and the wedge-shaped basal joints of the three anterior pairs of 

 ambulatory limbs. 



The palpi appear to be long, slender, and, so far as we can judge, 

 not chelate, as in Thelyiohonus, although their extremities may have 

 been furnished with spines, as in the genus Phrynus, with which 

 latter it appears to be more nearly comparable. I have not been 

 able to detect the ocelli. 



I propose to name this new and interesting type of " false- 

 scorpions " Eophrynus Prestvicii, the genus Curculioides being re- 



i 



