180 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Arachnid furnished with tracheal tubes, such as Galeodes , must be con- 
siderably lighter, and consequently more agile than one which, like the 
Scorpion, possesses pulmonary sacs. 
Terminal Organ of Pedipalp of Galeodes.* — Mr. H. M. Bernard 
takes the view of Koch that this organ is sensory, against that of Dufour, 
its discoverer, that it is a sucker-like seizing organ. The organ itself 
forms a conical pit the dorsal wall of which is thickly covered with fine 
sensory hairs, so regularly arranged that the chitinous membrane from 
which they arise appears like a fine network. The hairs are in evident 
connection with a deep sensory epithelium. A very similar organ, 
lately discovered on the pedipalps of Phrynus, clenches the argument in 
favour of the sensory function of this organ ; in it a sensory area runs 
longitudinally along about half the length of the claw. Further histo- 
logical details are reserved for the present, and it is suggested as a point 
well worth investigating whether ^the peculiar sexual organs at the end 
of the pedipalp of Araneids had any original connection with such a 
sensory organ. 
Reproductive Organs of Galeodes.t — Herr A. Birula has investi- 
gated Galeodes araneoides Pall, and G. ater Bir. As to the male, the 
genital aperture is a longitudinal cleft on the posterior margin of 
the first abdominal segment ; there are acinose glands opening into the 
uterus masculinus which is lined with chitin ; the vasa deferentia divide 
in the third abdominal segment into two branches narrowing towards 
the filiform testes ; on the walls of each vas deferens as they enter the 
uterus masculinus there are accessory acinose glands ; at sexual 
maturity the end of each branch of the vasa deferentia expands into a 
vesicula seminalis ; the testes consist of four coiled tubes, which before 
entering the vesiculse seminales become glandular and secrete the 
membrane of the oval, somewhat flattened, spermatophores which pass 
into the female. 
As to the female, the external aperture is as in the male ; the vagina 
is lined by a chitinous intima ; the receptacula seminis are paired 
vesicles, lined by chitin, and opening into the vagina; the uterus has 
two ear-like posterior appendages ; the oviduct passes directly into the 
ovaries ; the ova develope from an epithelial layer on the external wall 
of the ovaries ; the ripe ova lie in protruding follicles ; in the cavity of 
the ovaries and oviducts there are free amoeboid cells which destroy the 
sheath of the spermatophores, liberate the spermatozoa, and destroy 
those which are superfluous ; the ova develope within the cavity of the 
ovaries ; there are no embryonic membranes ; the thoracic and abdomi- 
nal segments are distinguishable before there are rudiments of ap- 
pendages ; there is a rolling up of the embryos as in Araneina ; the 
lateral organs, described by Croneberg, occur as long vesicular sacs bound 
to the body by thin stalks over the first pair of appendages; in the 
hatched offspring they are already much reduced; in the adult their 
remains are probably to be found in triangular tongue-shaped folds 
lying under the mandibles. 
* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hiet., xi. (1893) pp. 28-30. 
f Biol. Centralbl., xii. (1892) pp. 687-9. 
