THE FALSE-SCORPIONS OF SCOTLAND 33 



other ; in one of them was the empty cocoon of an Ichneumon with 

 the remains of a Ch. rayi beside it, and in the other was a Ch. rayi 

 with her embryonic mass attached. A third nest contained a female 

 Ch. rayi, with eight young ones just beginning an active life and 

 living free beside her. This nest measured four millimetres across 

 by three millimetres high. 



On September 15, 1905, at Kilrenny, Fife, I again found 

 Ch. rayi inside a nest with her embryonic mass attached, and in 

 August 1906 I opened a nest at Balmacara, Ross-shire, which con- 

 tained the adult and fourteen free young. In the latter district, on 

 August 27, I saw on a stone a young Ch. rayi just beginning its 

 free life. 



Externally the nests are formed of sand and earth particles and 

 chance ornaments, and they are lined with white silk internally. 

 They appear to me to be more conspicuous than those of O. 

 muscorum, but otherwise they are quite similar to the nests of that 

 species. 



My previous discovery of the newly-emerged youngster in June 

 leads to the supposition of a spring brood also ; the presence in 

 Brittany of swollen individuals apparently on the point of laying, on 

 April 17, 1905, seems to lead to the same conclusion, although I 

 found no nest of this species in Brittany in spring. In 1907, Aird 

 and Robert Whyte obtained occupied nests in Fife on March 23, 

 and in Midlothian on April 2, but on the individuals in these nests 

 the egg-mass was not apparent, and these nests may have been 

 hibernating nests. 



Chthoniits rayi makes a nest for the purposes of moulting and 

 hibernation also. On September 28, 1903, at St. David's, Fife, I 

 took from a nest a half-grown individual which showed by its light 

 colouring that it had recently moulted ; and at Balmacara, on 

 August 21, 1906, we opened a nest containing a newly-moulted Ch. 

 rayi together with the discarded moult. 



Our observations on the hibernating habits are few, but satis- 

 factory. On November 26, 1904, during a spell of frost which 

 had lasted several days, I spent some time in their Fifeshire haunts, 

 and found two nests with inmates. These creatures were almost 

 inert, owing probably to the extreme cold, but, on being disturbed 

 by me, they moved their great nippers a little. I was thus satisfied 

 that Ch. rayi hibernates inside its nest, and, moreover, I failed to find 

 any specimens moving freely that day. Aird Whyte confirmed 

 this matter of hibernation, by finding an adult in its nest near Dal- 

 beattie on January 3, 1907. 



The young Ch. rayi, on leaving the nest, is almost colourless, of 

 a light yellow hue, with a pink tinge on the two first pairs of 

 appendages, most pronounced on the chelicerae and on the fingers of 

 the pedipalps. 



73 D 



