154 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



with some chaff and left it in my room. Periodically afterwards, on 

 examining the bottle, I could see two or even three on the inner 

 side of the glass. On September 13 I emptied out the bottle, and 

 discovered that four of the inmates were moving about as actively as 

 ever, though they had had no food since they had been made 

 prisoners. In searching for the fifth I noticed parts of a silken nest 

 fitted into the dense spike of a withered head of grass or other 

 plant. The nest was partially covered with such pieces of chaff 

 and dirt as the little builder could obtain. Inside was the fifth 

 Ch. cancroides^ guarding with her open nippers the entrance I had 

 made. I tried patiently to induce her to show me her under side, 

 but she clung so tenaciously to her home that I could not attain 

 this end without destroying the nest. Still it was necessary for me 

 to know whether she had her embryo mass, and I had to force her 

 out. She was still swollen, but showed no external sign of the 

 embryo mass ; yet I thought it possible that she had built the nest 

 for reproductive purposes, but it proved afterwards that she had 

 done so for moulting. 



At any rate Mr. Wallis Kew has succeeded in proving that this 

 species builds a nest for reproductive purposes; in August 1907 

 he found in a stable in Essex two females in cocoons with their 

 embryonic mass attached. 



Among hay-seed and refuse Ch. cancroides is hampered in its 

 movements, but on a level surface it walks at ease. Its normal 

 line of progression is forward, the pedipalps being held so as to 

 form a rude semicircle and the nippers being expanded. It 

 keeps its body clear of the ground, but when tampered with it 

 squats and lets its pedipalps droop or draws them back. When 

 in danger Ch. cancroides moves sideways and backwards as well as 

 forwards ; but, when compelled to take a sideward line of retreat, it 

 soon alters its position so as to face the danger and to retreat in a 

 direct backward line from it. 



When at rest with pedipalps fully drawn back, the long femurs 

 lie back over the fore-body, their distal ends touching, the tibiae are 

 generally at right angles to the femurs, and the great hand nippers 

 parallel to the femurs. 



Chelifer latreillii (Leach), 1817. 



This species was described by Leach in 1817, but his type 

 remained unique, as far as Great Britain was concerned, until the 

 discovery of Scottish specimens by Mr. H. Crowther in 1882. Mr. 

 Crowther found three individuals on the promontory at North 

 Berwick, their proximity to the sea being such that at high tide the 

 spray was constantly thrown on the cracked igneous rock that 

 sheltered them. 



After prolonged hunting for this species on both shores of the 



