SOME ARACHNIDS AT HANOVER, CAPE COLONY. 149 



to the last molt, but after that he is longer and slenderer and has 

 longer and slenderer hands (nippers), but he is quicker and more 

 vicious. 0. austerus is handsomely marked; the back is dark brown, 

 the sides purple sometimes greenish, and the hands often a rich mix- 

 ture of red and brown. Scorpions have an organ, like two small 

 delicate white wings, attached underneath the body between and in a 

 line with the last pair of legs, which in the male is toothed along the 

 back edge to the base, while in the female the last quarter is not 

 toothed ; its functions are unknown, but it is some delicate sense organ 

 presumably. 



The other kinds of scorpions found here do not call for special 

 remark, though it may be noted that one of them (Parabuthus 

 neglectus, Pure.) was not thought to occur so far east. There is, 

 however, a very interesting pseudo-scorpion, a small tailless creature, 

 otherwise much like a scorpion, found under stones and in sand, which 

 has the curious habit of burying itself in the sand, and then, when it 

 wishes to change its quarters and opportunity offers, it seizes a bee or 

 fly by the leg and is thus strangely transported through the air by the 

 flying insect. 



Scorpions are of course viviparous and carry their young when 

 small on their back. 



The next group, the Solifugre, is a very interesting one. The 

 Dutch call them Jacht Spinnekoppen or Haar Scheerders, and, as 

 usual, these are the names by which the Solifugge are generally known 

 in South Africa. Except that the Solifugse are not spiders (though, 

 outside of scientific circles, held to be so in South Africa), Jacht 

 Spinnekop (hunting spider) is a very appropriate name, for, to the 

 casual observer, they resemble spiders, and they are mighty hunters. 

 Haar Scheerder (hair shearer) is even more appropriate. They are 

 called Haar Scheerders because of their two enormous 'shears.' Many 

 a person believes that, if they get into your hair, you will not get them 

 out again until they have shorn it all off; others believe that they 

 wait until you are asleep and then come and cut your hair off to build 

 their nests with imaginery operations, suggested no doubt by the 

 name and the shape of the jaws. 



I know of no creature which, for its size, is so terribly armed as the 

 Jacht Spinnekop; practically the whole of its huge head is trans- 

 formed into two pairs of terrible nippers of quite extraordinary size 

 and power. These nippers run straight forward, the eyes being placed 

 just where they emerge above. Each pair of nippers has its own inde- 

 pendent nipping action, and, in addition, each has an independent 

 up-and-down and backward-and-forward motion, giving the jaws an 

 awful tearing power, so that, as soon as the prey is seized, it is ripped 

 into pieces. 



