324 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



of the scorpion, although they should more correctly be 

 compared with the teeth of these combs. Both appear to 

 be functionally connected with the reproductive processes, 

 occurring as they do in Galeodes just in front of, and in 

 Scorpio just behind, the genital aperture. 



So little indeed do we know of these animals that there 

 is still no agreement as to the characters of the sexes. 

 How little reliance can be placed upon the earlier records 

 which speak of male and female specimens may be gathered 

 from the fact that until quite recently the large fusiform 

 spermatophores, which often completely fill the genital 

 glands and may even be visible through the skin of spirit 

 specimens, were generally assumed to be eggs. I have 

 seen many specimens with their glands filled with these 

 white glistening spermatophores, and am still uncertain 

 whether they are males waiting to discharge them or 

 females which have received them. It is quite probable 

 that the females receive many more spermatophores than 

 they require. The superfluous ones are said to be devoured 

 by amoeboid corpuscles which also dispose of the spermato- 

 phoral envelopes [Birula]. 



The female is said to attack and devour the male as 

 soon as she has received the spermatophores. This conjugal 

 ferocity is, however, somewhat compensated for by maternal 

 tenderness. The females have been watched digging holes 

 in the ground in which the eggs are laid, the eggs being 

 probably stuck together and protected, as in Thelyphonus, 

 by a glutinous secretion.^ The hatched-out young are 

 closely guarded and watched by the mother. The earlier 

 developmental processes themselves are still quite unknown. 



How much we yet have to find out about these formid- 

 able yet fascinating Arachnids can be gathered from these 



^ This would, doubtless, be comparable with that which sticks the eggs 

 of the Book-scorpions to the abdomen of the parent, and, further, with 

 that which in Phrynus forms the cocoon. This coarsely woven cocoon of 

 Phrynus leads on to the web-spinning of the Spiders, so that the elaborate 

 nets of these latter for catching prey can be traced back step by step 

 within the Arachnid phylum to the simple beginning still found in Thely- 

 phonus and probably in Galeodes of protecting the eggs with a glutinous 

 secretion. 



