28 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



and active when disturbed, and as this was the only individual in 

 such an immature condition that I had ever seen in winter, I had 

 no difficulty in concluding that it was hibernating in the nest from 

 which I took it. I did not find the adult in its nest in winter, 

 unless when it had already retired to lay its eggs. On March 31, 

 1904, however, I did find in a nest a specimen smaller than the 

 average and quite unswollen, but I knew from the absence of silk 

 in this particular nest that the creature was busy constructing it. 

 In the following year I found an immature individual in a nest in 

 West Lothian on March 10. 



In Kirkcudbrightshire, however, in 1907 we obtained several 

 immature individuals hibernating in their cocoons on January 5, 

 and Alistair Urquhart found an adult hibernating in its cocoon on 

 January 2. All my information goes to prove that only in rare 

 instances does the adult O. muscorum hibernate ; even in midwinter 

 the species can be obtained quite numerously by shaking the dead 

 leaves that accumulate in the woodlands. 



The nests of O. muscorum resist wear and tear admirably, and 

 remain attached to their original position long after they have been 

 deserted ; in some cases they are tenanted by mites or other crea- 

 tures, and repeatedly I have found a cake of minute black eggs in 

 these nests, showing that some other animal has discovered how 

 suitably the discarded False-scorpion's nest serves its own purpose 

 as well. 



Chthonius tetraehelatus (Preyss.), 1790. 



As a Scottish species Chthonius tetraehelatus was first made 

 known by Mr. Wm. Evans, who took two specimens under a piece 

 of wood in an old orchard at Culross on April 26, 1901, and six 

 more on August 1 7 of the same year under stones at the foot of 

 one of the pit-bings near Kinneil, Bo'ness. No further records 

 were made till 1904, in which year I obtained the species in the 

 counties of Ayr, Perth, Argyll, and Midlothian. Since then it has 

 been detected in the counties of East Lothian, Fife, Ross, Renfrew, 

 and Kirkcudbright ; and our present knowledge indicates that 

 Ch. tetraehelatus is, next to O. muscorum, the most abundant and 

 widely-distributed of our Scottish species. 



Its haunts are mainly in natural ground, both on open hillsides 

 and in woodlands. At Kilminning, in Fife, it swarms under stones 

 lying on a fine pebbly sub-soil a few yards above high-water mark, 

 as many as ten individuals occurring under one stone. At 

 Portincross in Ayr, on the Maiden Island and at Shirvan in Argyll, 

 and at Cambo in Fife, it was found in the neighbourhood of the 

 sea, but not within the influence of the tide ; in these localities it 

 occurs under stones imbedded in the soil. 



Besides occupying haunts in the open, however, Ch. tetraehelatus 



