106 FALSE-SCORPIONS 



fact that these attacks take place only in daylight. If a vessel con- 

 taining Chernetids and captured ants is darkened the ants are 

 released, whereas in the light the hold of the Chernetids is so 

 strong and persistent that they will not let go even when whirled 

 about. The attacks of the pseudoscorpion are most clumsy, and 

 this is thought to be the reason that the ant species continues to 

 survive. The ants never succeed in freeing themselves from their 

 attackers by biting. More recently Vachon (1954) has recorded an 

 extraordinary association between Ellingsenius hendrickxi and bees 

 in the Belgian Congo. This curiously ornamented and sculptured 

 species is very common at Tshibinda and Katana where it passes 

 its whole life cycle in bee hives. The false-scorpions often attach 

 themselves to the legs of the bees and sometimes numbers combine 

 to attack both workers and queens, which are killed and eaten like 

 ordinary prey. The Ellingsenius forces its chelicerae into the articu- 

 lations of the legs of the bee at intersegmental membranes and 



Fig. 2S . Ellingsenius hendrickxi. (After Vachon, 1954.) 



feeds upon it, holding on by its chelicerae only. If these become 

 unfixed, however, the pedipalps are used to regain control. 



After a meal a false-scorpion can often be seen to clean its 

 mouth-parts and chelicerae. This habit it shares with spiders and 

 harvestmen, which similarly pass their palps or legs through their 

 jaws. Since the prey is digested externally by means of enzymes 

 and then sucked in in solution, it is essential that the several channels 

 and grooves in the mouth-parts should be kept free from solid 



