4 Prof. T. Thorell on the 



(with the exception of the last), which I call lamellcefulcientes^ 

 or fulcra dentium. Between these rows lies a variable 

 number of rows of lamellge, the lameJlce intermedice. In 

 Peters's Atidroctonim, Centrurini^ and Scorpionini^ with the 

 exce])tion of Vejovts, these intermediate lamellas are few in 

 number, most, if not all, of them angular and large (larger 

 than the fulcra), and always arranged in a single row. In 

 his Telegoninij on the contrary, as also in Vejovis, the inter- 

 mediate lamellge are numerous, mostly rounded (at least to- 

 wards the apex of the comb), and very small (little, if at all, 

 larger tlian the fulcra), and arranged sometimes in one, some- 

 times in more rows. Such is at least the case with the few 

 species of the two last-named groups that I have had the 

 opportunity of examining. I have therefore detached Vejovis 

 from Peters's Scorjnomm , from the rest of which it differs also 

 by several other peculiarities, and have formed of it a separate 

 principal group. As the characteristics on which the four 

 principal groups, Androctonoidie, Telegonoidce, VejovoidcE, and 

 Pandinoidce *, recognized by me were founded, are at least as 

 important as tiiose whereby the families included in the order 

 of Spiders, for example, are distinguislied from each other, 

 I call these groups also families. 



For determining the limits of the smaller subdivisions, the 

 subfamilies and genera, I have partly made use of the cha- 



* The name is formed from the new generic name Pandinus. As Scor- 

 piones (or Scorpii) is the name of the whole order, the name Scorpio or 

 Scorpius can no more be retained as a " nomeu geuericum " than Ara/ieus 

 or Aranea wlien we cull the order of Spiders Aranece. Together with the 

 generic names Scorpio and Scorpius the denomination Scorpionini must of 

 course be discarded. 



As long as it was customary to unite the Pseudoscorpiones in the same 

 " family " as the Scorpions, it was right to call that family Scoipionides 

 {-idea &c.) ; but since the Scorpions have been formed into a separate 

 order, or at least subovder, this group ought as assuredly to be called 

 Scorpiones, as the class of fishes Pisces, and that of birds Aves. When we 

 have the good fortune to possess a universally known " nomen appella- 

 tivum " which accural ely suits a class, order, or suborder, nothing can 

 surely be gained by rejecting it for a newly manufactured denomination, 

 or by appending to the end of it -ides or -idea, a termination which implies 

 an ediension of the notion to which it is applied, and therefore, in the present 

 instance, /tt/sjA'es it, and is, moreover, in zoology generally applied as an 

 ending to faniili/ names, rarely to those of higher groups. Neither is this 

 our view invalidated by an appeal to the "law of priority;" for that law 

 holds only for the names of genera and species, not for groups of higher 

 rank, and is moreover not so absolute as not to admit of exception — for 

 instance, for the sake of avoiding a f(dse denomination. Thus the name 

 Scorpio europceus certainly could not be retained for a species never found 

 in Europe, but only in America; and the older name Tarentida, Fabr., 

 has been universally abandoned for PJinjnus, Uliv., because it would be 

 quite as wrong to call those animals Tareiduhi as Scorpio or Musca. . 



