156 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



inactive, with its pedipalps drawn back to the sides of the fore-body, 

 and, if tampered with, it moves slowly backwards, still retaining its 

 pedipalps in the retracted position. If undisturbed, however, it 

 gradually stretches its pedipalps outward and forwards, and opening 

 the fingers wide, begins to move along by jerky stages of five or six 

 paces, then settles down into a regular travelling movement. No 

 species lends itself to observation so readily as this one, and indivi- 

 duals kept in captivity have allowed me to determine for myself the 

 use of the serrula and the method of feeding both of which are 

 detailed in the introductory portion. In the fields I have watched 

 one carry off in its chelicerae a beetle l as long as itself. Mr. 

 Wallis Kew tells me that he has seen it, in captivity, catch with its 

 great hands and afterwards suck out the juices of Chthonius tetra- 

 chelatus ; he has also seen it preying on Chthonius rayi and among 

 the insects which it caught with great dexterity were five specimens 

 of the active little wasp -like Hymenopterous parasite which is com- 

 monly bred from cocoons of weevils of the genus Clonus. Chelifer 

 latreillii is of social habits, numbers being found in close proximity. 

 The nests of this species, used for moulting and for hibernation, 

 are large and generally placed between two closely-appressed pieces 

 of rock ; they are formed of earth with a silk lining and with a 

 silken floor and roof attached to the stones. The creature may 

 exceptionally take possession of a natural hole in the rock, and 

 cover the mouth with silk without any earth ; in one such case, on 

 my inserting a pin, the adult creature within showed fight, and 

 tackling the pin with its great nippers emerged from its nest-hole 

 after it ; shortly afterwards it again disappeared into the hole, but 

 when disturbed a second time and forced to come out, it refused to 

 return. In September we found nests containing the cast-off moult, 

 and on the yth of the month we examined a nest, three by five 

 millimetres, containing both a moult and a creature within it. 



No nest is made for reproductive purposes. I first observed 

 this in my captive specimens, one of which on June 2 7 was wander- 

 ing about freely with her embryonic mass attached to the under side 

 of her hind-body. I do not think the eggs had been produced 

 earlier than June 21, as I had not noticed anything peculiar about 

 her on that day. On June 30 the mass appeared to be developing 

 well, but on July 13 after my return from a trip to St. Kilda 

 I found the chelifer clean, without any trace of her embryonic mass. 

 She was still alive, however, and was active till August 30 at least ; 

 she had received no food since her capture, but beyond being much 

 thinner after her experiences, did not appear greatly inconvenienced 

 by her imprisonment. On August i I examined her dwelling care- 

 fully and found what I took to be the discarded embryonic mass ; 

 it was so shrivelled up, however, that I could make nothing of it. 



1 Identified for me as Tachyporus chrysomelinus by Dr. D. Sharp. 



