ON SOME RARE ARACHNIDS 55 



lips which are continuous with the aforesaid ridges. The 

 tubes into which they lead are slightly curved, unbranched, 

 and tapering. They are rather long, reaching to the 

 posterior border of the scutum, to the back of which they 

 are closely applied. Examined with a Leitz 7 lens they 

 appear opaque, and certainly show no signs of irregular, 

 annular, or spiral thickenings. I can form little or no idea 

 as to their functions. They may perhaps be glands secondarily 

 connected with the sexual apparatus. I have never seen 

 descriptions of them. In the centre of the boat-shaped 

 process there is a curious pigmented, convoluted, beaded 

 band. This rises at the apex of the process, runs straight 

 forward to its base, and then becomes curiously twisted. Its 

 convolutions are extremely different in pattern and extent in 

 different individuals, but it was present in all my examples, 

 and always extended on to the anterior part of the scutum, 

 generally reaching nearly to the rima genitalis. It gives the 

 impression of an adherent secretion squeezed out of some 

 tubular gland seated in or below the process itself. I could 

 however see no trace of such an organ, and it does not seem 

 to be detachable. It has no connexion with the two lateral 

 pores, and certainly does not exist in the male. The posterior 

 spiracles are placed laterally at the posterior border of the 

 scutum, which consists of a curved chitinous band convex 

 behind. This border appears to be neither raised above, nor 

 depressed below, the level of the surrounding structures. 

 These spiracles are as wide apart as are their anterior fellows. 

 They are as independent as the similar apertures in the 

 Dysderidae, and by no means open into any single, median, 

 common vestibule. Each spiracle is rather elongated trans- 

 versely, and possesses chitinized lips. In each the anterior 

 lip is much more pronounced than the posterior one, and a 

 process projecting downwards from the former somewhat con- 

 stricts the lumen of the aperture. Each posterior spiracle 

 opens into a large tracheal trunk ; this first gives off several 

 branches which run backwards for a short distance towards 

 the middle of the abdomen, and then turning forwards goes 



