Annals of the Transvaal Museum 
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from either in the presence of well-developed feathery scopulae on the external 
surfaces of the chelicerae in the female. I may remark, in passing, that the two 
genera just mentioned seem to me identical. The genus also resembles Pterino- 
chilus Pocock, differing therefrom in the shortness of the terminal segment of 
the posterior spinners and in the smaller area occupied by the cheliceral 
scopulae. Although the absence of scopulae on the chelicerae, apparently in 
both sexes, is a character specially emphasized by Dr Purcell in diagnosing the 
genus Harpactirella, there is just a possibility that it may eventually seem 
desirable to extend the definition of that genus so as to include the species now 
described. 
The generic and even the family characters are very elusive, and I am 
satisfied that no useful purpose is served by maintaining the Barychelidae and 
Theraphosidae as distinct families. A certain amount of evidence in favour of 
the union of these two groups may be found in the writings of those leading 
authorities who have nevertheless recognised them as distinct families. 
Dr Purcell, in his original description of Harpactirella 1 , referred that genus to 
the family Theraphosidae, but subsequently 2 regarded it as referable to the 
Barychelidae, apparently on account of the presence of a rastellum. The 
rastellum is however a very weak one, similar in fact to that found in species 
of the Theraphosid genus Pterinochilus, and, in any case, such a character, 
which varies so greatly amongst trap-door spiders and is merely an adaptation 
for boring into hard ground, should not be given the importance of a family 
distinction in my opinion. 
A spider described by Mr R. I. Pocock from the neighbourhood of Grahams- 
town under the name of Pterinochilus schonlandi * , and thus referred by him to 
the family Theraphosidae, seems to me in all probability identical with the 
species from Dunbrody described by Dr Purcell under the name of Harpactirella 
magna 4 . Mr Pocock’s type specimen is an adult male, now in the collection of 
the British Museum, and when determining the material in the Albany Museum 
I availed myself of the kindness of Mr S. Hirst to obtain further particulars 
regarding that type : according to the latter authority, the chelicera of Pterino- 
chilus schonlandi has a scopula on both inner and outer surfaces, which by the 
generic definitions of Pocock and Purcell will exclude it from both Pterinochilus 
and Harpactirella. Dr Purcell’s type of H. magna is a female, the description 
being exactly applicable to females in our collection which were taken along 
with males I now refer to P. schonlandi. These females on the other hand have 
no scopula on the inner surface and can hardly be described as scopulate on 
the outer surface of the chelicerae : there is however a well-developed compact 
patch of long silky hairs on the superior portion of that surface. In our male 
specimens of the same species, this patch is much denser and may rightly be 
described as a scopula, whilst the patch on the inner surface distally is also 
decidedly a scopula. 
The genus now described may possibly prove to be a near ally of the 
Mozambique species Leptopelma dubia Karsch 5 : that species is however 
markedly different in its toothed claws. 
The types of the new genus are five female specimens collected at Malelane, 
Barberton dist., by Mr Austin Roberts (24. vi. 1916). These I now suspect to 
1 Trans. S. African Phil. Soc. xi. p. 340. 1902. 
2 Annals S. African Mus. in. p. 101. 1903. 
3 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 7. vi. p. 318. 1900. 
4 Annals S. African Mus. in. p. 102. 1903. 
5 Monat. Konig. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1878 p. 314 Taf. 1, fig. 1. 
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