4IO , The Ohio Naturalist. [Vol. VI, No. 2, 



both North and South America. Two species, Chelifer canes- 

 triniim, BaL, and Chelifer longichelifer occur both in Ecuador 

 (Guayaquil) and in Venezuela, i. e., to the west and east of the 

 Andes. Two other species from Venezuela occur in Paraguay 

 and Uruguay. Hagen in one of his papers (IX) mentions 

 Chelifer americanus occurring in Venezuela and South Brazil. 

 Of the few species noted from Peru and Chili, west of the Andes, 

 none are reported from the east. The evidence from South 

 America, while insufficient, I believe nevertheless suggests a 

 distribution similar to that in North America. 



The distribution of the order Pseudoscorpionidae is, of 

 course, worldwide: North America, South America, Europe, 

 Asia, Africa, Australia, Madagascar, Sumatra and New Celebes, 

 each having representatives reported. 



Habitats. — I collected almost all my specimens from under 

 the loose bark of fiat-lying trees. A few were found in banana 

 plant rubbish (dried leaves, pieces of stems, etc.) and in dead 

 pines (Pine here refers to a relative of the pinaepple that grows 

 as an aerophyte upon trees in the tropics.) While I could not 

 state that pseudoscorpions are social in their habits, I always 

 felt that when I found one, others were not far away, and 

 that the}' were scattered in groups rather than singly. It is also 

 interesting to note that the places of occurrence of these species 

 in Jamaica were always damp or even wet: frequently so wet that 

 I could press water from the bark and wood with my fingers. I 

 never found them in dry places, and when I kept some in cap- 

 tivity under small pieces of bark in glass jars, I found that they 

 died and dried up if the bark was not kept quite moist and the 

 jars covered. By taking proper precaution, however, to provide 

 moisture, several colonies were kept alive for about ten months. 

 In one instance I prepared a roll of bark about a core of 

 decayed wood and set it one end in a glass jar. This worked 

 very well, the animals living between the layers of the bark 

 and wood. In this jar and' others some females even pro- 

 duced eggs, and some young were hatched. To keep water from 

 condensing upon the sides of the glass, I lined the jars with filter 

 juiper. Not all preudoscorpions, however, require such wet con- 

 ditions; thus Chelifer biseriatum already referred to, and Chelifer 

 cancroides, the book scorpion, both live in very dry ])laces in 

 houses. Other localities where these little creatures find their 

 abode are: upon the leaves of trees (palmetto), between the 

 crevices of rocks, under rocks, driftwood and leaves in the 

 woods. Ohisium maritimuni, Leach, and Chclanops iristes, Bks., 

 live under stones between tide marks: the former on the Isle of 

 Man and other British Isles, the latter on Long Island, N. Y. 

 Immes, who reports the former species, suggests that it retains 

 sufficient air in its tracheae to keep it alive during high tide. 



