302 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
pair of feet are very much reduced in the female. In Pacliyiulus com- 
munis , and probably in all Diplopoda with direct development, the 
internal feet are reduced, without however affecting the joints ; it may 
be that such reduced appendages form the point of departure in the 
formation of the copulatory apparatus. 
In adult male Craspedosomatidae the silk-glands are atrophied ; in 
the females they attain great development and secrete an investment 
for the eggs ; in both sexes of Lysiopetalidae the glands are atrophied. 
The state of the glands should be attended to in classification. 
New Myriopods.* * * § — Sig. F. Silvestri describes seven new species of 
Diplopoda from Queensland. He also gives an account of Sicilian 
Myriopods, — 36 species of Chilopoda (2 new), and 23 species of Dip- 
lopoda (6 new). Of the Sicilian Chilopoda, four are North African 
forms, and three Iberian ; of the Diplopoda there are four which are 
common to the Italian peninsula, but are not known elsewhere in the 
Mediterranean region. 
Malayan Myriopods.f — Dr. Carl Grafen Attems describes Prof. 
Kukenthal’s collection, which included 64 species, 42 new, namely, three 
Chilopoda and the rest Diplopoda. 
7. Protracheata. 
New Species of Peripatus. :f — Dr. A. Willey gives a diagnosis of 
Peripatus novse-britannise sp. n., of which he obtained thirteen species 
in New Britain. The diagnosis shows that this species constitutes a 
new (Melanesian) type of Peripatus , conforming neither to the type of 
the neotropical, nor of the Australasian, nor of the Ethiopian species. 
New Species of Peripatus from Ecuador.§ — Sig. L. Camerano 
describes a new species, P. Corradi , from Quito, which he places beside 
P. quitensis Schm., and P. Balzani Camer. These are the only Neo- 
tropical forms which agree with the new species in having three teeth 
on the external mandible. 
8. Arachnida. 
Ant-eating Spider.|| — Herr E. Wasmann has added another name, 
Theridium triste Hahn, to the list of spiders known to prey upon ants. 
This somewhat rare species is small, round-bodied, and of a brilliant 
black colour. It is found in the neighbourhood of the nests of Formica 
fusca, F. rufa , F. sanguinea, and F. rufibarbis. It rests upon a blade 
of grass, and attacks isolated ants. Its mode of procedure is as follows, 
— it jumps down on its victim, winds a thread round the body, and, re- 
ascending to its perch, slowly draws up its entangled prey. From this 
mode of attack the observer has called it the “ gallows spider.” Its 
very small size relative to its prey, and its brilliant black colour, have 
led Wasmann to suppose, with Van Hasselt, that its poison must be more 
than usually strong. 
* Bull. Soc. Entom. Ital., xxix. (1898) pp. 225-32 (14 figs.), and pp. 233-G1 
(30 figs.). f Abli. Senckenberg. Nat. Gesell., xiii. (1897) pp. 473-536 (4 pis.). 
X Ann. Nat. Hist., i. (7th ser.) 1898, pp. 286-7. 
§ Atti It. Accad. Torino, xxxiii. (1898) pp. 308-10 (2 figs.). 
|| Zool. Anzeig., xxi. (1898) pp. 230-32. 
