THE FALSE-SCORPIONS OF SCOTLAND 163 



purpose of escaping from the sea-water as for the sake of the air 

 enclosed in these crannies. 



Obisium maritimnm rests with its pedipalps drawn back, so that 

 the nippers are close to the front of the fore-body, and keeps its 

 nippers expanded as if to receive visitors. In moving, it holds its 

 pedipalps, still kept open, well forward, and with the tips of its 

 nippers it taps the tiny shells and other material in its way as if 

 testing them. It is less regardful of interruptions placed in its path 

 than the land species are, and is less inclined to retreat from an 

 obstacle. When it'thinks fit, however, it moves easily backwards, and 

 can run actively backwards or forwards, and at times retreats into 

 very narrow crevices of the stones. I did not succeed in observing 

 them catch their prey, nor could I discover what they preyed upon. 

 One moved over a number of springtails without taking any notice 

 of them. 



Obisium maritimum forms nests for the purposes of reproduction 

 and moulting. Whether or not it also forms a nest for the purpose 

 of hibernation remains a matter for future investigation. The nest 

 is a tough cocoon of white silk, fastened on the under side of a 

 stone, and lying between the stone and the matrix below. In the 

 nests that came under my observation there was no external 

 covering of earth whatever; the slight pieces of dirt attached to 

 the white silk seemed purely accidental. Yet the nest of O. 

 maritimum is not, in spite of its white colour, glaringly conspicuous, 

 but might easily be passed over as a piece of quartz or other white 

 mineral substance embedded in the stone. In a nest found 

 September 24, 1904, was a female with her embryonic young at 

 least eleven in number attached in the form of a hemispherical 

 mass to the under side of her hind-body. The embryonic mass 

 forms one whole, of irregular outline, each embryo being distinctly 

 marked off from the others. Each embryo appears to lie in a thin 

 white sheath of its own, and to be connected vitally with the living 

 female. 



Under the same stone was a second nest of the same nature, 

 measuring 5.5 mm. across by 4 mm. in another direction; it was 

 slit open along one side, and contained the moulted fore-body of one 

 of these creatures, but the moult was carried off by the wind before 

 I had subjected it to the examination I should have liked. 



The second Scottish record for O. maritimum was obtained on 

 August 27, 1907, at Balmacara, West Ross, when, after a long 

 search, a single immature female was captured. It was moving 

 freely on the under surface of a stone set in the sandy mud some 

 distance below the high-tide line. In spite of a continued search, 

 no more specimens were discovered. 



(To be continued?) 



