20 QUEENSLAND SCORPIONS : BY JOSEPH LAUTERER, M.D. 



formation of the maxillary palpi, resembling those of the 

 Scorpionidae but ending in moveable claws instead of chelas. L. 

 Koch, the editor of the Spider-Fauna of Australia, received a 

 fragmentary specimen of a Charon from Upolu which he described 

 as ('linmn au,'itralianus, mentioning that the first pair of ambu- 

 latory feet had been broken off. I had the good fortune to 

 obtain a specimen of a hitherto unknown species of Charon, in 

 which specimen the left foreleg was preserved, but broke off 

 when I tried to measure it. As it can be seen in the specimen 

 the first pair of legs does not possess anything of the character 

 of an ambulatory leg. The chief segments of the leg are 

 still to be seen, but its terminal phalanx consists of minute 

 segmentary rings corresponding as closely as possible to the 

 antennfp of an insect or a crustaceous animal, ending in a 

 decided point, and presenting every appearance of a sensorial 

 organ of feeling and evidently doing the same service as the 

 antenna? do to the insects and the palpi to the other Arachnidje. 



What might be the cause of this singular metamorphosis ? 

 The answer to this question seems easy when you look at the 

 singular formation of the maxillary palpi, no more used for 

 feeling, and as little for grasping ; used only as an ofl^usive, 

 aggressive weapon, intended to make a deep wound, into which 

 afterwards a poisonous secretion is infused from the mouth. 

 The palpi having been metamorphosed in the manner described, 

 the animals of the genus Chevora, waking mostly in the dark, 

 have to employ the first pair of legs in the capacity of feeling 

 organs. The individuals able to carry the forelegs in the 

 manner suited best lor that purpose survived in the lapse of 

 millenniums and the first pair of legs were transformed as it is 

 now into a pair of feelers, of course not from a morphological 

 point of view but only physiologically corresponding to the 

 feelers of insects. 



