204 BRITISH SPECIES OF FALSE-SCORPIONS. 



3rd segments on either side. They are four in number and not 

 always easily discerned. Beneath the first abdominal segment are 

 placed the two orifices of the genital organs ; the parts of which 

 are duplex in both sexes. There is also in the middle of the first 

 segment of the abdomen, on the under side, a spinning apparatus- 

 This was first described some years ago by Prof. Menge. 

 The full functions of this apparatus have not been entirely 

 discovered, but its only use as yet known is to envelope the eggs in 

 a kind of cocoon. 



The internal anatomy of this group, such as the digestive, 

 circulatory, and respiratory systems have all been investigated and 

 described by Menge, but for our present purpose no notice need be 

 taken of this part of the subject further than to say that the 

 respiration is by means of tracheae. 



The sexes in this order offer no certain outward characters for 

 their separation, excepting the larger and more tumid form of the 

 female when distended with ova. 



The Cliernetidea are universally distributed and are found under 

 stones, old logs of wood, dead bark of trees, among dead sticks and 

 rubbish, moss and decayed leaves ; also in old rooms and out- 

 buildings, and more or less at all seasons of the year. One species, 

 the smallest known, Cliiridium museorum, is found among old 

 books, MSS. in libraries, and in herbaria, where probably it feeds on 

 poduridee and other insects found in such places, and is known as the 

 book-scorpion. Little is really known of their habits and mode of 

 life, owing chiefly, no doubt, to the obscurity in which they dwell. 

 Their food appears to consist of minute insects and other arachnids 

 in their immature stages. Their power of spinning, so far as known, 

 appears only to be exerted in the formation of a cocoon for their 

 eggs ; these are carried about by the female and hatch out within 

 the cocoon, where (according to a distinguished Russian naturalist, 

 M. Metschnikoff) they undergo a series of metamorphoses, and 

 become fully formed on quitting the parent. 



The species of this order are comparatively few everywhere, and 

 not very numerous in individuals ; though some few species will 



