liM Tlie Arachnida of Cambridgeshire 



stones or bark, or to gather moss and shake it out over ;i - 

 of paper. 



When found, they are certainly very <|iiaint objects, 

 especially when examined with a lens. No English sp. 

 measures more than J in. in length, and some are much 

 smaller. They are usually straw-coloured or brown, and the 

 appropriateness of the name false-scorpion is at once apparent ; 

 their long chelate pedipalps are remarkably scorpion-like, but 

 the " tail " or postabdomen with its terminal sting is wanting. 

 Their usual gait is slow and deliberate, but they can scramble 

 away with considerable speed most readily with a lateral or 

 retrograde motion. They are predaceous, feeding on small 

 insects, and I have detected them devouring Psocidae. 



Six genera and twenty species are recorded as English, 

 and of these four genera and seven species have occurred 

 at or near Cambridge, and so small a list may be given 

 in full: 



GROUP I. Four eyes. 



Chthonius orthodaetylus, Leach. 

 Chthonius rayi, L. Koch. 

 Chthonius tetrachelatus, Preyssler. 

 Obisium muscorum, Leach. 



GROUP II. Two eyes. 

 Roncus lubricus, L. Koch. 



GROUP III. No eyes. 



Chernes nodosus, Schrank. 

 Chernes phaleratus, Simon. 



(2) The Phalangidea or harvestmen are usually classed 

 as spiders by the uninitiated. Some of them are very familiar 

 objects, with excessively long and brittle legs, and compara- 

 tively small bodies, though this disproportion by no mean- 

 always holds good. In reality they are easily distinguished 

 In. in spiders by the fact that the whole body is in one piece 



