A MONOGEAPH 



OF THE 



TEERESTEIAL CARBONIFEROUS ARACHNIDA OF 



GREAT BRITAIN, 



I.-INTRODUCTION. 



Most of tlie material upon which this monograph is based came from Coseley, near 

 Dudley, and was kindly lent to me by the following gentlemen, to whom my 

 grateful thanks are due : Dr. Wheelton Hind, Mr, S. Priest, Mr. Henry Johnson, 

 the late Mr. William Madeley, and Mr. Walter Egginton. I am also greatly 

 indebted to the Director of the Geological Survey and to Dr. Kitchin for the 

 loan of specimens from the Survey Museum in Jermyn Street ; to Dr. Smith 

 Woodward, the Keeper, and to Dr. F. A. Bather, the Assistant-Keeper, of the 

 Geological Department of the British Museum, not only for the loan of specimens, 

 but also for the privilege of free access to the collection of fossil Arachnida in that 

 institution ; to Dr. Henry Woodward for the opportunity to examine and describe 

 examples that had been entrusted to him hy Dr. Moysey, Mr. W. A. Parker, and 

 Mr. F. Holt ; and to Mr. Robert Dunlop for two very interesting specimens from 

 Scotland. Without the help thus generously afforded, the present work could not 

 have been attempted. Finally, I wish to thank Miss Gei'trude M. Woodward for 

 the care she has taken in the execution of the plates and text-figures illustrating 

 this monograph. 



The species forming the suliject-matter of the following pages are referred to 

 seven orders : Scorpiones, Pedipalpi, Aranea?, Ricinulei, Haptopoda, Phalangio- 

 tarbi, and Anthracomarti, one species doubtfully belonging to the Opiliones. The 

 Haptopoda, Phahxngiotarbi, and Anthracomarti are, so far as is known, wholly 

 extinct. I am unable to offer any satisfactoiy suggestion as to the cause of their 

 extinction, there being nothing in their organisation very obviously calculated to 

 make them less fitted for survival than the Eicinulei. The reason for the survival 

 of Scorpiones and Pedipalpi is perhaps to be found partly in their possession of 



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