NEW SOUTH AFRICAN ARACHNIDA. 



325 



Order SCORPIONES. 



Opistliophthalmus pugnax Ihorell, var. natalensis 



var. nov. 



The types of this variety are two adult specimens, male and 

 female, from Estcourt, Natal, collected by Mrs. E. J. Turner 

 and by Mr. Gruy Marshall respectively, who presented them 

 to the British Museum. The Natal Museum has a female 

 example, a trifle larger than the type, from Mooi River, Natal, 

 collected by Mr. C. James. 



The variety agrees with the typical form of pugnax, 

 as known to me through material from Pretoria, in colour and 

 general structure, but diifers as follows. 



No stridulatory lamellee on the chelicerte. 



Median eyes more posteriorly situated, their distance from 

 the hind end of the carapace being less than one-third of the 

 total length of the carapace (more than one-third in typical 

 pugnax). 



Hands much less coarsely granulated, that of the male on 

 its inner portion superiorly being covered with numerous quite 

 small and isolated round granules, the finger keel with one or 

 two coarse pits in its course, but practically continuous 

 throughout, the more external secondary keel quite obsolete 

 and the inner one, for the greater portion of its length, only 

 represented by infuscated scarcely enlarged granules, the 

 outer surface of the hand with only one keel ; that of the 

 female without coarse granulation on the inner part of its 

 upper surface, except quite near the finger, but covered with 

 a much flattened meshwork of more or less coalesced ridges 

 and granules in which the secondary keels are quite absent, 

 the whole surface appearing much smoother than in the 

 typical form, the finger keel well defined, continuous in the 

 distal half, more or less broken in the basal half (in the Mooi 

 River example it is continuous almost throughout). 



Hand of male slightly narrower in proportion to the length 

 of the hand back than in pugnax, and the fingers a little 

 lono-er. 



