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II.—Eophrynus and Allied Carboniferous Arachnida

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

R. I. Pocock
R. I. Pocock
Affiliation:
of the British Museum (Natural History).
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Extract

For the opportunity to study the interesting Carboniferous Arachnid forming the subject-matter of the following pages, I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., who recently placed in my hands for that purpose a very perfect gutta-percha cast, and a good, though less complete one, in plaster, of the original fossil specimen, which was unfortunately not available for examination in its natural form.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 9 , Issue 10 , October 1902 , pp. 439 - 448
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1902

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References

page 439 note 1 Four pairs of appendages are represented as attached to the anterior portion of the body, to the front border of which a separate transverse sclerite was apparently articulated. Buckland regarded this sclerite as the head, and the appendages as the antennæ and three pairs of legs of a beetle. No segments are described in connection with the abdomen, but, judging by the figure, this region was furnished with a large circular anal orifice. Scudder (Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci., vol. xx, 1882, p. 17) provisionally placed this species in the Arachnida, near Architarbus. I suggest that it may be an Arachnid allied to the recent Cryptostemma. In the latter the large circular and gaping anus is a very marked feature; there is a movable sclerite jointed to the anterior border of the carapace and completely concealing the mandibles; the appendages of the second pair are tucked beneath the prosoma when at rest, so that from its dorsal side the animal exhibits only four pairs of limbs. In these three features Cryptostemma resembles Curculioides ansticii.

page 444 note 1 Geogn. Jahresf., 1900, pp. 1–4, figs. 1–3.Google Scholar

page 445 note 1 Zeitschr. deutsch. geol. Ges., vol. xlii (1890).Google Scholar

page 446 note 1 Since the pregenital somite is of inconstant occurrence within the class Arachnida, persisting in some orders (e.g., the Pedipalpi, Palpigradi, and Pseudoscorpiones) and obliterated in others (e.g., the Scorpiones, Xiphosuræ, and Solifugæ), I adopt the suggestion of Ray Lankester (“Arachnida” in Encycl. Brit., Suppl., 1902, p. 524) and regard it as a supernumerary somite, counting the genital somite as the first somite of the opisthosoma. The annexed figures [see pt. ii] are numbered in accordance with this view of the matter. This fact must be borne in mind in comparing the figures and description.