190 Transactions.— Zoology. 
(vulva) is of various forms and sizes in different species. In connection with 
this aperture is frequently a peculiar corneous process—epigyne (f£... 64) — 
differing more or less.in structure in almost every species yet known, and 
thus in most species furnishing a tangible and reliable specific character. ` In 
à similar situation is the external orifice (exceedingly minute) of the male 
seminal organs ; no external or protrusive process has ever been observed to 
be connected with them. Experiments on the generation of spiders, made 
with great eare by our distinguished araneologist, Mr. Blackwall (“ Report on 
Some recent researches into the structure, functions, and economy of the 
Araneidea,"— Report of Brit. Assoc, 1844, pp. 68, 69), go to prove con- 
clusively that the seminal organs of the male spider (at least so far as any 
external use or application is concerned) are in some eases wholly unnecessary 
for the impregnation of the female, and this has led me to conjecture 
(hypothetically) that there may be some minute ducts connecting the seminal 
organs with the alimentary canal through which the fecundating fluid might 
pass to the esophagus, and thus be taken from the mouth by the palpal 
organs. The discharge of the spermatic fluid in birds into the lower intestine, 
whence it is voided by the vent, has been mentioned to me by a scientific 
friend as a somewhat analogous case to what I have suggested. This idea has 
received some support (in fact it was raised first in my mind) by the repeated 
notice, in several species, of the constant application, by the male, of the 
digital joint of the palpus to the mouth, between the times of its application 
to the female organs. These applications were alternate and rapid, and very 
distinctly made, and no other use was made of the palpi during the whole 
process of copulation. "The question as to the existence of such ducts, as I have 
supposed might exist between the male seminal organs and the alimentary 
canal, would be one well worth the attention of insect anatomists living in the 
tropics, where spiders of large size might easily be procured for dissection, and 
in adult males the p fs} a might be sought for in the esophagus 
and mouth by means of the microscope. No European spider is perhaps large 
enough for such an investigation to be prosecuted with much chance of any 
certain result. Some arachnologists are of opinion that the male spider 
collects the seminal fluid with its palpal organs from the minute orifice above 
noted, but I am not aware of an instance in which any spider has been 
detected in such an employment of its palpi, either during the process of 
copulation or at any other time, nor, I believe, has any fluid ever been 
discovered in the palpi. Mr. Blackwall’s opinion would seem to be that | 
impregnation is wholly independent of the male seminal organs or of their 
contents, which is a position contrary to all reason and analogy ; but whatever 
may be the real facts in regard to this, it is certain that the palpi and eurious 
palpal organs of the male spider are actively used in copulation, and afford 
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