THEP8EUD0SC0RPION-FAUNA OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 121 



found on a bottle of wine in saw-dust in a cellar in Percy Street 

 [London], and to another found by a botanist among some 

 plants. And lie had lately seen another, in which the two fangs 

 [chelicerae] were very apparent, being so large as to exceed 

 in diameter the thickest part of the claws [palps]. This is 

 Chthonius sp. ; and is a very early reference to a false-scorpion 

 of that kind. The only earlier one is by Preyssler who estab- 

 lished Scorpio tetrachelatus [Chthonius tetrachelatus] in his " Ver- 

 zeichniss bohmischer Insekten " (Prague, 1790). 



The celebrated " Memoire Apterologiq-ae " of Hermann (who 

 had died in 1794 at the age of 25) appeared in 1804 at Stras- 

 bourg, and contained the first methodical account of a series of 

 these animals. Six species (from the local fauna), studied with 

 ample magnification, were ably described and figured ; and 

 Chelifer (to which they were referred) was divided into two sec- 

 tions, which foreshadow the two main divisions of the Order — 

 Panctenodactyli and Hemictenodactyli — of modern authors. 



8. Montagu, G. — Descriptions of several new or rare Animals, 

 principally marine, discovered on the South Coast of Devonshire. 

 Trans. Linnean Society, xi. pp. 1-26. London, 1813. 



In this memoir, which Montagu had presented to the Society 

 in 1807, the false-scorpions are retained in Phalangium. Chelifer 

 had been " very properly instituted," but it had been thought 

 proper, in that place, to afhx to these insects the titles by which 

 they were generally known.* " Phalangium cancroides " is 

 employed as the name of a small species, = Cheiridium museo- 

 rum (Leach, 1817), which the author was accustomed to see in 

 one of his cases of preserved birds. His principal object, how- 

 ever, was to make known similar animals of another sort. Of 

 these he had two kinds or more ; but they are referred together, 

 with a mark of doubt, to " Phalangium acaroides.^^ The one 

 which concerns us here (of which a figure is given) was from 



* Sir J. E. Smith, purchaser of Linnaeus' collections and insti- 

 tutor of the Society, was still President, and others supposed to be 

 bigoted to the system of Linnaeus were prominent in the Society's 

 concerns. A spirit of restraint was, no doubt, rife at this time ; but 

 it has been exaggerated. Montagu, in any case, would be a willing 

 co-operator, being himself mistrustful, as we learn elsewhere, of at- 

 tempts to improve on the Linnaean plan. 



