208 



ARACHNOIDEA. 



CASE vVe do not propose to make any separation of genera, for the 

 species that have been so treated by Mr. Gosse and Mr. Hodge. 

 The extremes, indeed, where on the one hand the insect is entirely 

 enclosed in a hard cuirass, and on the other in a pliant leathery 

 skin, would seem to give good characters for generic sub-division ; 

 but there are species that combine these two qualities, being soft- 

 skinned, with patches of head armour, so that, on the whole, as 

 there are only five of them altogether, and the difficulty of making 

 them out is not sufiiciently great to call for subdivision, we think 

 it better to keep them as one genus ; the more so, that they all 

 have a common facies indicative of belonging to the same type. 



No 



No.: 



Halacarus ctenopus. 

 Length i-32d of an inch. 



Genus Halacarus {Gosse), 

 Characters same as those of family. 



Halacarus ctenopus {Gosse). — 1. Magnified sketch 

 of ditto, copied from Mr. Gosse's figure in Ann. 

 Nat. Hist. 1855. 



Body, smooth, granulated, divided below 

 only. The colour is variable, usually dark 

 red, or yellowish brown, with a whitish line 

 down the back. Two large eyes, or supposed 

 eyes, on the back near the base of the second 

 pair of legs. Common, and generally distri- 

 buted around the British coast. Dredged up 

 from seven to thirty-five fathoms. 



Halacarus falcatus (Leptognathus falcatus, Hodge).— 2. Magnified sketch 

 of ditto, copied from Mr. Brady's figure in Proc. Zool. Soc. 



Colour, orange brown. Palpi very long and slender, extending 

 beyond the tip of the rostrum, and bearing towards the extremities a 

 few fine setae. Eyes, or supposed eyes, three ; one behind the base 

 of the head, the others near the origin of the second pair of legs. 

 Upper surface of the body divided by delicate furrows or stri^ , 



