PEDIPALPI OF CEYLON. 47 
Apparently none of the Pedipalpi are poisonous. If a whip- 
scorpion be molested with a finger bearing a cut or raw scratch, 
this cut or scratch will probably begin to smart violently with the 
acetic acid ejected by the whip-scorpion from near the base of the 
tail ; but this is the worst they can do. 
Specimens of all these forms of Pedipalpi may be readily kept 
in captivity and great interest derived from the study of their 
habits. The larger species of scorpion-spider and whip-scorpion 
will live comfortably in a bare insect breeding cage, feeding on 
insects, &c., cockroaches and crickets (not too large) being much 
appreciated. The smaller species of both forms require a layer of 
light soil—which must never be allowed to get very dry-—on the floor 
of the.cage, and will feed on similar insects. Even the largest species 
like to have water sprinkled in occasionally, so that they may suck 
up the drops ; and they all prefer to have some shelter—a piece of 
stone or rotten wood or bark of a tree—under which they may hide 
by day, their wanderings in search of food being entirely nocturnal. 
The common Tartarid Schizomus crassicaudatus will live in 
quite a small glass collecting tube. I have kept one now for several 
weeks with a little soil and a few of the tiny white. insects (Podurids) 
often found among decaying leaves or under old coconut husks. 
I presume that it eats these insects, for it has had no other food, 
and is still perfectly healthy ; but I am by no means sure, as its 
small size makes its habits in captivity much less easy to study 
than are those of the scorpion-spiders and whip-scorpions. 
Probably all the Pedipalpi will turn cannibal in an emergency. 
The large scorpion-spider when seen upon a flat wall is 
most easily captured by lowering a broad glass tumbler over it 
and then slipping a piece of stout paper or thin card in beneath. 
The smaller form when met with in the jungle is easily managed 
by holding him down by the tip of a finger placed on the body, 
whilst the thumb secures him from beneath. Whip-scorpions I 
usually seize suddenly in the middle of the body with a pair of 
forceps. ‘Tartarids are too small to pick up in this way, and too 
shiny to be easily secured with a camel hair brush. I usually 
scoop them and some of the surrounding soil with the blade of a 
penknife into a glass tube, emptying each specimen out into a 
second tube as I secure it, thus always leaving the first free for 
another catch. But the extraordinary facility with which they 
completely conceal themselves in the soil when once they have hit 
upon a suitable place makes it practically impossible to secure 
every specimen found. 
T have to thank Mr. Green for the very useful figures (all of 
which have been drawn from life) accompanying this note. These 
are probably the first published figures drawn direct from the living 
animals, and they present them in one of their most characteristic 
attitudes. 
