But most important of the evidences presented by the trilobites of affinity with Limulus, and therefore with the Arachnida, is the tendency less marked in some, strongly carried out in others, to form a pygidial or telsonic shield - a fusion of the posterior somites of the body, which is precisely identical in character with the metasomatic carapace of Limulus.
A tendency is exhibited to the formation of a metasomatic as well as a prosomatic carapace by fusion of the tergal surfaces of the somites.
Intermediate somites forming a mesosoma occur, but tend to fuse superficially with the metasomatic carapace or to become co-ordinated with the somites of the metasoma, whether fused or distinct to form one region, the opisthosoma (abdomen of authors).
The greater or less evolution and specialization of the metasomatic carapace appears to be the most important basis for classification - but this has not been made use of in the latest attempts at drawing up a system of the Trilobites.
In this genus ten free somites (mesosoma) occur between the prosomatic and metasomatic carapaces.