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BRITISH PSEUDOSCORPIONS. 
WM. FALCONER, 
Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield. 
Mr. H. Wallis Kew in writing, and the Royal Irish Academy 
in publishing “ A Synopsis of the False Scorpions of Britain and 
Ireland ’*? (Proc. Ro 1; Av Vol 2CXxXx = Section! Ba Nommes 
pp. 38-64, Feb. 1st, 1911), with figures of all the species, and 
at a price which makes it accessible to all, have rendered a 
distinct and much-needed service to the cause of natural 
history in the British Isles. Mr. Kew has spent years in the 
close and systematic study of these creatures, and there is no 
one more competent to produce the standard work on the 
subject he has so successfully made his own. He has been able 
to clear away all obscurities with regard to the British 
species, to correct or remove those wrongly named, and 
to add others to the British list, with the result that our 
information on the number, distribution and occurrence of the 
British Pseudoscorpions is for the first time placed on a firm 
and sure foundation. His book, based on the most recent 
classification, and provided with tables for identificatory 
purposes, affords a ready and certain means of determining 
the various kinds, while its availability, reliability and full- 
ness should induce many naturalists to take up the study of 
these animals, which in this country forms a small, compact, 
highly interesting and little known group of twenty-two species. 
As it is now nineteen years since the Rev. O.. Pickard- 
Cambridge issued his “ Monograph of the Chernetidea ’ (° Proc. 
Dorset Field Club,’ Vol. XIII., pp. 199-231), it may be of 
interest and value to mark some features of the progress made 
since its publication, and incidentally to note the necessary 
additions to, and corrections in my keys to the British Pseudo- 
scorpions which appeared in ‘ The Naturalist,’ December rgto. 
The following have been dropped out of the British list :-— 
Obisium sylvaticum C. L. Koch, the solitary British example 
so named was unskilfully prepared and mounted as a 
microscopic object, making its correct identification 
very difficult ; it is really Roncus lubricus. 
Chelifer meridianus L. Koch, a solitary example from 
Dorset, wrongly determined by Simon to be this 
species ; now referred by Mr. Ellingsen, in spite of 
some differences, to Chernes cimicoides Fabr. 
Chelifer hermannit Leach, the single type specimen in 
the British Museum collection is a young example 
of Chelifer cancroides Linn. 
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* London: Williams and Norgate, 14 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, 
W.C. Price ms. 6d. 
Naturalist, 
