244 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Nov. 1, 1SG9. 



not admitted its plausibility. It appears that 

 M. Fabre records a somewhat analogous case. Sir 

 John Lubbock, in his courteous letter to me, says : 

 "Fabre, in a memoir on myriapods in the ' Annales 

 des Sciences Naturelles,' about ten or fifteen years 

 ago, stated that in a species observed by him, the 

 male spins a nest of silk and deposits a drop of 

 semen in it. He also suspected that the female 

 comes and impregnates herself." 



Q®G %%^ 











F'g. 210. Obisiuju spermatozoa. End of spermatic tube after 

 desiccation, x 500. 



I have many times seen the supposed male dis- 

 charging these tubes from the vulva, and have 

 satisfied myself that the globular object at one end 

 (fig. 209) consists mainly of spermatozoa. Also, 

 I have noticed the supposed females scratching the 

 papillous structure alluded to above, and its vicinity, 

 where there appears to be at this time a fluid secre- 

 tion (especially in the groove between the legs), 

 with their hind feet. 



As the spermatic tubes do not retain their shape 

 for many hours after extrusion, and the sperma- 

 tozoa are scattered in the neighbourhood when the 

 tube collapses, the hypothesis seems to me very 

 probable (fig. 210). 



I have patiently watched for some amiable traits 

 in the character of these creatures, but the results 

 I have obtaiued are so small that I must conclude 

 I have watched in vain. Connubial felicity, so far 

 as my experience goes, is unknown among them : 

 no two individuals ever meet without threatening 

 to eat each other up— not a vain threat either, for 

 it often comes to pass that the weaker is sucked 



dry, and its remains are then cast aside by the 

 stronger. 



Maternal affection does seem to exist, at least 

 for a time, for after the young have disengaged 

 themselves from the egg (containing twelve to 

 seventeen) they mount on their mother's back, after 

 the manner of true scorpions, forming a very pretty 

 study, since they cover her up entirely, while she 

 sits apparently ready to defend them. The egg in 

 which they are contained is attached to the 

 papillous structure above mentioned, by a tube con- 

 veying nutriment from the abdomen of the parent 

 to the embryo young, till they are fit to commence 

 an independent existence, and is divided into as 

 many compartments as there are young chelifers.* 



Fig. 211. Female Cheli/er Latveillei in pregnant 

 state, x 15. 



Tiiis observation may be confirmed by those who 

 have the opportunity during the summer months. 



In Sir John Lubbock's paper "on the Generative 

 Organs and Formation of the Egg in the Aunulosa" 

 (Phil. Transac. lS61,page 617), are some sugges- 

 tions which, coming from one so skilled in micro- 

 scopic dissections, and so eminent in knowledge, 

 are of great importance and weight. He thinks 

 that there are with Chelifers two sorts of females, 

 namely, those producing in the summer broods of 

 eighteen or thereabouts by a budding process, as 

 described above, and those which he suspects lay 

 thirty-five to forty eggs in a secure place during the 

 winter time, to hatch in the spring. 



As Pseudoscorpions carefully conceal themselves 

 in the winter time, this observation is not easily 

 verified. The behaviour of all the healthy speci- 

 mens that I have succeeded in keeping through the 

 winter iu confinement has been the same. They 

 spin themselves a kind of silken cocoon f and 

 hybernate in it. The shape of this cocoon or nest 

 varies according to the situation chosen for it. 

 Generally it is oval, and gives room enough for the 

 occupant to turn round. It is fixed, and one or two 



* This refers to two specimens of Chelifer Latveillei ; the 

 one with a brood of twelve, the other of seventeen young 

 ones. 



t Obisia are rarely observed to spin webs. One lately, 

 however, spun a very complete web in one of my cells. 



