322 Mr. R. I. Pocock on Arachnida and 



the species to which the name morsicans is applied in this 

 paper. Of the Arachnida, on the other hand, no fewer than 

 twenty-five species, represented by eighty-eight specimens, 

 were identified^ and of these, fifteen — that is to say, 60 per 

 cent. — were regarded as new. 



Prof. Sollas and Mr. Gardiner were less fortunate, for 

 although a larger number of specimens were obtained by 

 them, the number of species amounts only to eight, and all of 

 these, with the single possible exception of Gary-pus longi- 

 digiiatus, appear to me to be well-known Oriento- Australian 

 forms. In fact the fauna bears exactly the character that 

 one would venture on h priori grounds to prophesy for an 

 atoll occupying the position of Funafuti. That a new scorpion 

 should turn up in such a spot is in the highest degree im- 

 probable ; and when it is seen that Mr. Rainbow's so-called 

 new species is placed in a genus and family to which it 

 obviously does not belong, one's confidence in its novelty is 

 rudely shaken, and an unfavourable reflection is cast upon 

 his determination of some of the other species of Arachnida. 



No doubt this scorpion, as well as most — possibly all — of the 

 spiders, has been introduced by human agency either within 

 or before historic times. Some of the spiders, however, may 

 have reached the island by that means of distribution known 

 as " ballooning " — that is to say, floating on webs in early 

 life, a habit which is so marked a characteristic of the smaller 

 species. The False Scorpions, too, may have been introduced 

 by man ; but the members of this order also have exceptional 

 means of dispersal in connexion with flies, beetles, and other 

 winged insects, to which, as is well known, they habitually 

 cling. So that, although I am not sufficiently well acquainted 

 with the Pseudoscorpion fauna of the Oriental and Australian 

 regions to say whether the species described as Chelt/er longi- 

 digiiatus by Rainbow has previously received a name or not, 

 it is permissible to suppose that it will prove not to be peculiar 

 to Funafuti. The same opinion may be held concerning the 

 one and only species of Millipede obtained on the island, 

 except that the species has certainly not been previously 

 described. As for the Centipedes, they are notoriously 

 widely distributed Oriento - Australian species, a remark 

 which also applies to all the spiders that came into my hands 

 for examination. 



The fauna of the island of Rotuma, which Mr. Gardiner 

 took the opportunity of visiting, bears much the same stamp 

 as that of Funafuti, except that it appears to be richer in 

 species belonging to types which have perhaps scarcely so 

 wide a range as those obtained in Funafuti. 



