Notes on the Natural History of the Scorpion. 391 



in Arachnidans. A few days of fasting and sickness precede 

 the moult. The loosening of the outer envelope from the under 

 oorium gradually ensues ; the animal detached from all con- 

 nexion with its old covering eventually makes its escape. The 

 operation is announced by symptoms of inquietude. The crea- 

 ture throws itself on its back, shakes itself, puffs itself out, so 

 as to separate the connecting membranes. These acts form 

 intervals of rest and agitation. The head is extricated with 

 the eyes ; the extremities are freed with difficulty ; it would be 

 impossible to disengage them, did not the covering split longi- 

 tudinally ; but not unfrequently a limb is left in the sheath, 

 and occasionally the animal perishes in the process. The tegu- 

 mentary skeleton being sloughed off, all the parts resume their 

 position, and the epidermal sheath represents the complete 

 external form of the articulated creature that has inhabited it. 

 The time occupied in the business of the moult in crustaceans 

 varies according to atmospheric influences, but fasting and 

 sickness accompany the act, and the new integument, from be- 

 ing soft and membranous, soon becomes hardened and colored 

 to its proper tints. (Reaumur — Memoires de l'Academie des 

 Sciences. 1718.) 



The alimentary canal of the scorpion is embedded in a fatty 

 substance. This canal is exceedingly narrow, with only a par- 

 tial dilatation of the digestive organs, such as is met with in 

 insects, the natural consequence of the character of the scor- 

 pion's food, not entirely, though greatly, the animal juices 

 sucked from the bodies of its victims. With little necessity 

 for capacious receptacles for nutritious matter, there is equally 

 as little occasion for reservoirs for effete materials. Absorption 

 and nutrition conducted on, when a store of fat has been laid 

 in, will allow of intervals of resting and fasting. Under inac- 

 tivity, where fatty matter has been deposited, a process of con- 

 sumption in repose, like that which takes |)lace from the larva 

 to the pupa state of the insects, will result. After a month the 

 congregated young of the scorpion would be ravenous, and the 



