中文摘要：

Harrington等（1959）指出：“问肋沟是尾肋部从轴沟切过的横沟，表示融合的肋节界线”。Whittington和Kelly（1997）在该书重编时重复使用了这句话。也就是说，间肋沟这个概念只出现在尾部。但在中国的教科书中，尤其是近年来使用的主要古生物学教程中，也把“间肋沟”标注在胸肋之间，意思是胸肋之间不是缝而是沟。但三叶虫肢解时每一胸节是单独分开的，胸节之间是不融合的，只有尾部是一块完整的甲壳，上面才有间肋沟。作者认为，用通用的定义来限定“间肋沟”才更合适。

英文摘要：

The trilobite term ＂interpleural furrow＂ was interpreted as ＂transverse groove extending from axial furrow across pleural region of pygidium, indicating boundary of fused pleurae＂ by Harrington, Moore and Stubblefield （1959）, which was later followed by Whittington and Kelly （1997） and Yuan （2009）. However, in some Chinese text books in Palaeontology, the pygidial term was sometimes used to describe not only the pygidial structures but also the thoracic segmental structures as well. It is an obvious misunderstanding of the term in the opinion of the present author, because the thoracic segments are separated from each other and no furrow exists between segments. Therefore, the term interpleural furrow should be restrietedly used for pygidial structures.