252 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



furnishing a still later date he wished to record having found a 

 vigorous female on the window-sill of his house November i6> 

 1891. 



Dr. Marx presented the following paper : 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LIFE 

 HISTORY OF ARACHNIDA. 



BY GEO. MARX. 



Thelyphonus giganteus Lucas. The study of the life-his 

 tory of some Arthropods is in many cases met with difficulties, 

 and even made impossible by the habits of these animals. 

 Some spend their lives buried in the solid wood of big live 

 trees or in great depths of the earth, or in the water ; others 

 again are nocturnal in their habits, and of others we know 

 nothing at all of their mode of living. 



This is a great detriment to the general knowledge of natural 

 science, not only that we lose the interesting and important 

 features of the habits of the animal in question, but often the 

 true character or the functions of organs, appendages and parts 

 of the body are not at all understood, because their use has 

 never been determined nor their applicaton observed. Take 

 for instances the large and conspicuous comb-like appendages 

 at the underside of the abdomen of the Scorpion ; nobody 

 knows with any degree of certainty the purpose which this 

 serves ; we infer by their proximity to the genital organs that 

 they are probably accessories in the act of copulation, but this 

 is a mere supposition. 



Another instance in which external appendages are not at 

 all understood, are the five peculiar lamellse in the posterior 

 coxae and trochanteri in the Galeodes ; here also, we stand 

 before a conundrum which science has yet unsolved. 



Many such instances may be cited in all orders of Arthropods, 

 but accident often throws a spark of light into this obscure 

 region and, if only these even, the most insignificantly appear 

 ing accidental observations, were duly recorded and put to 

 gether we should be much better acquainted with the biology of 

 some of our species. In the following I will record an instance 

 in the life-history of one of our indigenous Pedipalpes, the 

 Thelyphonus giganteus Lucas. Although my observations are 

 insignificant in themselves, they may form, however, a small 

 building stone for the structure of the natural history of this 

 interesting Arachnid. On the 3rd of October, 1890, I received 

 through the kindness of Mr. Howard two live young specimens 

 of the species Thelyphonus giganteus which arrived the day 

 previous in company with the mature female from Florida. 



