128 SCORPIONS 



are that she soon tires of her domestic life and devours her 

 unfortunate mate. 



All scorpions are viviparous, and the newly hatched young 

 ones swarm on to their mother's back, and she carries them about 

 for a week ; during this time the young scorpions require no 

 food, they remain motionless, clinging to the female until after 

 their first moult, when they leave the parent and begin hunting 

 for themselves. 



Whip Scorpions have no poison glands ; the tail is long and 

 thin, like the lash of a whip. They are never of very large size ; 

 the largest known species (Mastigoproctus giganteus) is found in 

 the southern part of North America, and measures rather more 

 than 2\ inches. These creatures inhabit south-eastern Asia and 

 tropical America, and are found in the crevices of rocks, under 

 stones, beneath fallen tree trunks in damp situations, and some 

 species excavate burrows in loose soil. They feed chiefly upon 

 insects, which they crush with their powerful pincers, and are 

 very unpleasant creatures to handle, for if annoyed or frightened 

 they eject a disagreeable acid fluid from two large glands situated 

 in the last abdominal segment. Some allied forms (Phrynidc?) 

 inhabiting warm parts of the Old World, as well as tropical America, 

 have not the long, whip-like tail, and the pedipalps are not armed 

 with the crab-like pincers of the true scorpions. In place of 

 these the animals have a curious movable joint like a curved 

 spine, which can be closed down like the blade of a pocket-knife, 

 and with this weapon they grasp their prey. The carapace of the 

 Phrynida family is broader than it is long, and distinctly divided 

 from the abdomen. The first pair of legs are extraordinarily long 

 and thin, and used by the animals as feelers. 



The Spiders (Araneae) form a very large order of the class 

 Arachnida. The body is distinctly divided into two distinct parts 

 the cephalothorax, protected by an unsegmented shield or 

 carapace, and a soft, unsegmented abdomen. The eight legs 

 are seven-jointed, and the feet (tarsi) are furnished with comb- 

 like claws. The claws are usually three in number, one being 

 much smaller than the two principal claws, which are paired. In 

 many climbing spiders the third claw is replaced by a bunch 

 of stout hairs called a scopula. The pedipalpi, which serve as 

 feelers, are six-jointed and leg-like. In the female spider they 



