Cambridge. — On the Spiders of yew Zealand. 187 



Art. XXXYI. — An Introduction to the Studi/ and Collection of the 

 Araneidea in New Zealand. With a DescrijJtion and Figures of 

 Cambridgea fasciata, L. Koch, from Chatham Island ; and also of a 

 New Species of Macro fchele, Auss., M. huttonii, Cambr., found at 

 Wellington, New Zealand. By the Rev. O. P. Cambridge, M.A., C.M.Z.S. 



Plate YI. 

 [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 22nd September, 1873.] 



I.— SYSTEMATIC POSITION AND GENERAL STRUCTURE. 

 The Araneidea, or (as distinguished from other Arachnids) true spiders, are 

 often popularly included under the general term of Insects ; it will, therefore, 

 not perhaps be amiss to begin with a diagram showing their position, both in 

 relation to their nearer congeners as well as to the greater groups of the 

 animal world. 



Animal Kingdom. 

 Branch: i. Radiata, ii. MoUusca | iii. Articulata, iv. Vertebrata. 

 Class: i. *Ap]iantopoda | ii. fCondylopoda. 

 Sub-class: i. Insecta, ii. Myriapoda, iii. Arachnida | iv. Crustacea. 

 Order: i. Acaridea, ii. Phalangidea, iii. Solpugidea, iv. Scorpionidea | v. Thelyphonidea 

 vi. Araneidea. 



Of the whole sub-class Arachnida, it will be suflScient to state here that its 

 leading characters are. Body divided into two principal parts — cephalo- 

 THORAX and ABDOMEN ; ORGANS OF LOCOMOTION, EIGHT j EYES, when present, 

 TWO to TWELVE, and simple ; in some few cases absent altogether ; respiration 

 hy means of trachea or pulmobranchi^, or a combination of the two. 



Order araneidea. 

 This order of the Arachnida is characterized — first, by an undivided 

 cephaio-thorax, which yet shows, by its various converging grooves and 

 furrows, more or less distinctly, the cephalic and thoracic segments {separate 

 in the Insecta), of which it is the soldered-up result (PI. VI., figs, 3, 4, and 16). 

 The abdomen is united to the cephaio-thorax by a narrow pedicle, and 

 terminates with organs for spinning ; it is covered with a continuous epidermis, 

 neither (as far as known) annulate, nor segmentate, nor folded, except in two 

 remarkable species — Liphistius desultor, Schiodte, and (but partially only) iu 

 Tetrahlemma medioculata, Cambr. Respiration is tracheal as well as pulmo- 

 branchial ; the respiratory organs are placed underneath the fore extremity of 

 the abdomen ; their position is generally indicated by round or oval scale-like 

 plates, and at the fore edge of each is an almost imperceptible slit or orifice, 

 through which air is admitted to the breathing apparatus (f. 2m, and 15m). 



* Comprising the Annelides. 



+ Corresponding to the Insecta, Linn. , or Condylopoda, Latr. 



