A contribution to the knowledge of liphistiid spiders

These spiders resemble fossil spiders of the Carboniferous. Although they are unique in retaining several primitive characters it is thought best to include them in the sub-Order Mygalomorphae and to abandon the special sub-Order Liphistiomorphae.
The family Heptathelidae to include those species with seven instead of eight spinnerets as in the Liphistiidae is also abandoned.
The species Liphistius thorelli Sim. from Sumatra is regarded as a synonym of the other Sumatran species L. sumatranus Thor.
Eight species of Liphistius and two of Heptathela are now recognized. Their distribution is confined, according to present knowledge, to Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan, Malaysia and Sumatra. This may provide useful evidence in the question, as yet unsettled, of the origin of south-east Asia in terms of continental drift.
A special visit has been paid to Sumatra to rediscover Liphistius sumatranus (of which only one specimen was found and described in 1879) to establish with certainty that it is distinct from the Malaysian L. desultor . This was achieved and the species are now compared.
Some biological observations are provided.