$ 819. THE ARACHNOIDAE. 895 
deférent canals to the base of the abdomen where, between the two pulmo- 
nary sacs, there is a genital opening in a small horny plate. This opening 
is only a simple transverse fissure which, in copulation, does not come in 
contact with the vulva of the female. These animals always use their 
hollow, spoon-shaped palpi, which often have a very complicated structure. 
They are filled with sperm and applied to the entrance of the vulva. For 
this purpose, the last article of the palpi, which is always hollow and much 
enlarged, contains a soft spiral body terminated by a curved, gutter-like, 
horny process. Beside this, there is an arched, horny filament, and 
several hooks and other appendages of the most varied forms. These 
appendages are protractile, and serve, some to seize the female, and others 
as conductors of the sperm. 
With the Scorpionidae, each of the two testicular tubes forms a loop 
enveloped by the substance of the liver, and connected with its mate by two 
transverse canals. The anterior border of each of these loops sends off a 
short Vas deferens which opens at the base of the abdomen, receiving in 
its track two caeca of unequal length. Of these, the longer contains a 
granulo-vesicular substance, and is, perhaps, an accessory gland ; while the 
shorter, from the character of its contents, is evidently a Vesicula semi- 
nalis.° A deeply crenated, small papilla projects out of the genital 
orifice, and, as it is wanting with the females, may he regatded as a 
8 For a long time, the excretory point of the Vasa 
deferentia was undetermined, because the two 
sexes of these animals had never been seen to place 
in contact these genital orifices during copulation. 
But when it was discovered that only the palpi of 
the males touch the vulva, the excretory ducts of 
the testicles were sought in these palpi. It is only 
recently, however, ‘that it has been perceived, that 
with these Js, a8 with the Li i see my 
memoir in Germar’s Zeitsch. f. d. Entomol. II. p. 
423), the copulatory organ and the Vesicula semi- 
nalis are entirely removed from the male genital 
orifice. In order to be convinced that the applica- 
tion of the male palpi against the female vulva 
constitutes really the act of copulation, it is only 
necessary to examine the palpi under the micro- 
scope and compress them. From the last article a 
large quantity of sperm will’ be seen to escape. 
Then again, after copulation, the Recep la sem- 
inis of the females will be found filled with the 
fluid. The form of the palpi with the males varies 
almost infinitely according to the genera and spe- 
cies. They are very simple and slightly swollen 
with Clubiona and Lycosa, while, with Epeira, 
Tegenaria, Linyphia, Micryphantes, Salticus, 
Argyroneta, &c., their last article is so complicated 
that the most minute description would be inade- 
quate in giving an exatt idea of it; see the figures 
of Lyonet, loc. cit. p. 383, Pl. XIX. XX.; T'revi- 
* [§ 319, note 8.] I have made a microscopic 
examination of this curious palpus-structure in 
connection with the general structural relations of 
the internal genital organs, in some of the common 
Araneae (Tegenaria, Agelena, &c.) where this 
formation is most marked. In Agedena, the pecu- 
liar, corkscrew-like, horny process, situated in 
the last, spoon-shaped article of the palpus, con- 
tains a canal throughout, which commences in- 
a kind of receptaculum at the base of the pro- 
eess. This receptacle is filled with the peculiar 
granule-like bodies mentioned above (Note to § 
ranus, Bau d. Arachn. p. 37, Taf. IV. fig. 35- 
37; Brandt, Mediz. Zool. II. p. 87, Taf. XV. fig. 
1; Savigny, Descript de Egypte, Pl. I.-VIL.; 
Menge, loc. cit. p. 35, Taf. III. fig. 13-27. 
Treviranus (Bau d. Arach. p. 33) has made an 
exposition of the older opinions of Lister, Lyonet, 
Clerk, and Degeer, on the copulation of these ani 
mals; but he regarded the act as only a prelude 
for exciting the sexual desires, and which would be 
followed by a real copulation, consisting of the con 
tact of the male and female genital orifices. More- 
over, T'reviranus had never observed this last act. 
The more recent observers, such as Dugés (Ann., 
d. Sc. Nat. VI. p. 187), Menge (loc. cit. p. 36), and 
Blackwall (Annals of Nat. Hist. XV. p. 225), have 
naturally only confirmed the views of the older nat- 
uralists. According to Menge, the males of Lin- 
yphia and Agelena evacuate a drop of sperm from 
their genital orifice, which is then received and 
absorbed by the last article of their palpi.* 
9 For the male organs of the Scorpions, which 
have been very imperfectly described by T'revira- 
nus (Bau d. Arachn. p. 22, Taf. I. fig. 11), see 
Meckel (Beitrag. loc. cit. p. 114, Taf. VII. fig. 14), 
Serres (loc. cit. p. 89) and Muller (loc. cit. p. 59, 
Taf. I. fig 8). I have seen distinctly with living 
individuals of Scorpio europaeus, spermatic par- 
ticles in motion in the small caeca which I have 
called the seminal vesicles. 
316, note 7). As the most repeated and careful 
examinations showed no spermatic particles in this 
palpus-capsule, I was led to advance the view that 
the palpi were only ‘y and not intr 
organs, in the copulatory act (see Proceed. Boston 
Soc. Nat. Hist. IV.1851, p. 106). But the question 
is still open, and especially as some recent investi- 
gators of the economy of these animals have observed 
facts that would indicate the intromittent function 
of these organs ; sce particularly, Blackwall, Ann. 
Nat. Hist. passim, for several years past. — Ep. 
