428 Mr. R. T. Pocock on East- African Scorpions. 



difference obtains between the genera Hadruroides, Poc., and 

 Caraboctonus, Poc, as I have already pointed out *, yet no 

 one regards the character in this case as of more than generic 

 value. I submit, therefore, that we are logically compelled 

 to fuse the Isometrini and the Centrurini into one group, and 

 if a name be required for it the latter, as the older, must be 

 retained. This reduces Kraepelin's subfamilies to two ; but 

 the further question to be discussed concerns the value that 

 he attributes to the tibial spurs. According to his table the 

 genera fall into two groups, namely those possessing tibial 

 spurs (Androctonini) and those without them (Centrurini in 

 the wider sense defined above). At first sight this looks 

 reasonable enough, but, when critically examined, it seems 

 to me to fail in consistency in just the same way that 

 Thorell's system did ; for the genus Babycurus occupies an 

 intermediate position between the two sections. In fact, if 

 classified according to the pedal spurs, the genera must be 

 referred to three sections, namely: — (1) those with these 

 spurs on the third and fourth legs ; (2) those, or rather the 

 one, with them only on the fourth leg ; and (3) those with 

 them on neither leg. I confess that, in my opinion, if the 

 Buthidse are to be divided into subfamilies upon the presence 

 or absence of the pedal spur, it will have to be into the 

 following three : — (1) Buthini, with the third and fourth pairs 

 of legs spurred ; (2) Babycurini, with the third pair not 

 spurred ; and (3) Centrurini, with the third and fourth pairs 

 not spurred. But if exception be taken to this partition of 

 the genera (and it is certainly, I think, open to criticism), I 

 see no escape from the conclusion expressed by myself in 

 1890, that the character or characters which justify the 

 splitting of the family into subfamilies have yet to be found. 



Since 1890, when I wrote an account of the South- African 

 Buthida? contained in the collection of the British Museum 

 (P. Z. S. 1890, pp. 114-141), several additions have been 

 made to our series of Babycurus. The first and most im- 

 portant is a series of six examples from Cette Cama (or Sette 

 Camma), south of the Gaboon. These are of especial interest, 

 inasmuch as Karsch's types of B. Biittneri (Berl. ent. Zeit. 

 xxx. p. 78, 1886) also came from the Gaboon, though from 

 a spot called Sibangefarm, which I have so far failed to 

 discover on the atlases. These specimens, moreover, agree 

 more closely with the description of B. Biittneri than any 

 others examined by me. To the colour-characters mentioned 

 below it may be added that the lower surface of the tail is 



* Ann. & Ma~. Nat. Hist. (6) xii. p. 329. 



