626 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
in spiders. He points out that the significant fact that the earliest 
lung-leaves appear on the exposed posterior sides of the appendages 
before the latter have commenced to sink below the surface into the 
body, has hitherto escaped the notice of investigators. The presence of 
rudimentary genital tubes tends to show that the genital ducts had 
originally some other function, and the similarity of their development 
with that of the coxal glands in Arachnids generally indicates their 
nephridial origin. 
New Sound-producing Organ in a Spider.* — Mr. R. I. Pocock 
gives a short account of a new type of sound-producing organ which he 
has discovered in Cambridgea antipodiana, Upon depressing the abdomen 
and looking at it from the front a large cave-like hollow may be noticed. 
The roof of this excavation is hairless, smooth, and horny, and is 
sculptured out into a series of six strong transverse ridges. The scraper 
that rubs against these ridges is a large heart-shaped tooth that rises 
from the anterior of the two sclerites which strengthen the upper surface 
of the pedicel. In its position and in some of the (Retails of its structure 
this new organ resembles the sound-organ of the stridulating Theridiidse 
(Steatoda). A further resemblance between this new organ and that 
of the genus just mentioned consists in its being confined to the male. 
Spinning-glands in Phrynus.f — Mr. H. M. Bernard adds to his 
description of the spinning-glands in Phrynus an account of the so- 
called “ penis ” and of the morphology of the operculum. Two points 
may be noticed. The first abdominal segment has a pair of spinning- 
glands, and is provided with a pair of rudimentary appendages. These 
appear to have been retained, not only as a genital organ, but as a pair 
of nippers for dragging about the cocoon spun from the glands they 
contain. In other forms cement or spinning-glands occur on every 
segment, and a series may be set out in which a pair of spinning or 
cement glands is found on each of the first five abdominal segments. 
This long series of glands, with all their variations of position and 
specialisation, leads almost obviously to the conclusion that the common 
racial form of the Arachnids consisted of a number of but slightly 
differentiated segments, and could not have been an animal with a 
highly specialised segmentation, such as a Limulus or a Eurypterid. 
With the evidence before him Mr. Bernard comes to the conclusion that 
the genital operculum of the Pedipalpi is clearly an acquirement within 
the Arachnidan phylum, and is not, as Laurie claims, a primitive feature 
inherited from Eurypterine ancestors. Whenever among the vestiges of 
limbs on the abdomen we get anything more than a flat scale-like 
structure, it is not a leaf-like limb at all, but a typical filamentous, and 
sometimes jointed appendage. From this Mr. Bernard concludes that 
the scale-like opercula on the Arachnid a have no connection whatever 
with the leaf-like limbs of Limulus. The latter are most probably per- 
sistent phyllopodan limbs, while the former are the vanishing remains 
of jointed filamentous limbs. 
Stylogamasus lampyridis. — M. P. Megnin and Dr. E. Trouessart J 
separately make severe remarks on M. A. Gravel's account of a parasite 
* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., xvi. (1895) pp. 230-3 (2 figs.). 
f Journ. Linn. Soe., xxv. (1895) pp. 272-8 (1 pi.). 
X Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xx. (1895) pp. 178 and 179-80. 
