ARACHNIDA. 463 



obliged to save himself by a precipitate retreat : for the ordinary 

 savage instincts of the female, " etiam in amoribus saeva," are apt to 

 return, and she has been known to sacrifice and devour her too long 

 tarrying or dallying spouse. 



There is a redeeming feature, however, in the psychical character 

 of the female spider^ in the devotion with which she fulfils all the 

 duties of the mother. But before proceeding with the examples of 

 the maternal instinct, I shall first point out the anatomical character 

 of the generative organs in the scorpion. 



The palpi of the scorpion take no share in the formation of the 

 generative system in either sex ; both male and female are provided 

 with a pair of peculiar comb-like appendages i^fig. 164, d\ attached 

 directly behind the genital aperture (ib. c\ which is situated at the 

 middle line of the under and posterior part of the abdomen. Miiller 

 has observed, that the teeth in the comb of the male scorpion {Buthus 

 Africanus) are much more numerous and smaller than those in the 

 female ; but the sexes are not otherwise distinguishable outwardly. 

 The males appear to be fewer in number than the females. 



Each testis of the scorpion is a long and slender tubulus, which 

 divides, and the divisions anastomose together to form three loops or 

 meshes enveloping the substance of the liver, and connected with its 

 fellow by two transverse canals. A short blind sac (vesiculd) and a 

 longer accessory glandular tube communicate with the termination of 

 the short sperm-duct. The common duct terminates in an oblong 

 receptacle, the outlet of which is situated close to the corresponding 

 one on the opposite side of the body, at the middle of the under part 

 of the last segment of the thorax. A small crenate papilliform penis 

 projects from the genital orifice. 



The tubular oviduct of the female scorpion divides and unites with 

 its fellow through the medium of a third short middle canal, forming 

 three meshes on each side, and a seventh longer anterior loop by the 

 terminal union of the oviducts before they open upon the bivalvular 

 vulva : anterior to their union each oviduct dilates into a sperm- 

 reservoir. 



The ovaria consist of lateral appendages going off at right angles 

 from the longitudinal canals, and expanding into elliptical sacculi 

 before communicating with the canals ; the ova are developed in the 

 slender blind free extremities or beginnings of the ovaria, and the 

 embryo is developed in the sacculus, the scorpion being viviparous. 

 The course of its development, which would be a subject of great 

 interest, has not yet been traced. In the separate outlets of the 

 sperm-ducts in the male, and of the oviducts in the female, the 

 higher Arachnida manifest an analogy with the Crustacea. 



