242 Mr. R. I. Pocock on Scorpions 



and in the specimens the vesicle is almost smooth beneath 

 and the tail is much thicker at the base than at the apex. In 

 otlier respects the description of dimidiatus applies closely to 

 the examples Mr. "VValkcr obtained. 



Prof. Kraeplin, for some unknown reason, thought scaher 

 might be a synonym of gibbosus of BruUe. In face of the 

 figure of scaher this view is quite untenable ; for it is clearly 

 shown that the inferior keels of the fifth caudal segment are 

 uniformly granular throughout — a character to which even 

 Prof. Kraeplin appears to attach some importance, judging 

 from the prominence he has given to it in his synoptical table 

 of some of the species of the genus. In gibbosus, as is well 

 known, these keels are irregularly dentate. But this is not 

 the only error into which Prof. Kraeplin has fallen in his 

 attempt to give the synonymy of gibbosus ; for, without 

 qualification, he adds confucius of Simon to the list. This is 

 the second time that it has fallen to my lot to rescue confucius 

 from oblivion ; but I have now neither tiie time nor the 

 inclination to point out how it differs from gibbosus. I will 

 merely say that no one accustomed to handling scorpions 

 could, with the species before him, possibly confound the two. 



Prof. Kraeplin suggests, moreover, that B. nigrocinctus of 

 Ehrenberg may be another synonym of gibbosus. To this it 

 may be said that there is nothing in the description and the 

 figure of nigrocinctus to justify this belief. 



B. scaber, as Karsch long ago pointed out, belongs to the 

 kottentotta group. But the time, I believe, has not yet come 

 for asserting positively, as Prof. Kraeplin has done in the 

 case of other species, that it is a synonym of hottentoita. It 

 at least differs from all the specimens of kottentotta and of 

 Martensii that I have examined in the absence of the median 

 lateral keel on the third and fourth caudal segments. Of all 

 the forms known to me it approaches nearest to J udaicus. 



Buthus quinque-striatus, Hempr. & Ehrb. 



Buthus quinquestriatits, loc. cit. no. 1, pi. i. fig. 5. 



Two specimens were obtained at Perim Island. The 

 British Museum has many specimens of this species from 

 Egypt, and others from Jerusalem^ Algeria, the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and South Africa. The specimens from the Cape 

 and from South Africa were in the Earl of Derby's collection. 

 If the localities are to be trusted the distribution is of very 

 great interest, for I am not aware of a single other scorpion 

 that occurs in both North and South Africa. Since, however, 

 so far as 1 am aware, this is the only record of the exten- 

 sion of B. 5-striatus south of the equator, it seems advisable to 



