NESTS OF PSEUDOSCORPIONES. 109 
the tips of the branches of the galea or on or near the margin of 
a tubercle which replaces that structure in some groups. The 
spinning is thus done with the chelicere, the galea or tubercle 
being the structure immediately concerned ; and the presence 
or absence of the galea does not appear to be associated with 
differences of method or in the tissue. The combs ete. of the 
cheliceree have nothing to do with the silk. All the nest-making 
is done from within, the animal gradually imprisoning itself. The 
construction of an external framework is the first part of the task ; 
and when this has a coating of extraneous matters the animal 
frequently goes out to collect materials. These it picks up in the 
palp-fingers, transfers them to the chelicere, and returns thus 
laden to the nest, where it attaches the materials together and to 
those already placed by applying silk to their inner surfaces and 
stretching threads from one to another. The silken attachments 
form an open irregular meshwork, which is the essential frame 
of the nest, and is constructed in some cases without the use of 
extraneous matters. The silk is drawn from the galea or 
tubercle in several separate viscid very fine threads, which remain 
separate or coalesce, all those from each galea or tubercle some- 
times forming a single thread. The spinning is associated with 
continuous forward and backward movements of the body and 
with lateral movements of the chelicerze. During the earlier 
parts of the work, when attachments are being made from place 
to place, the threads usually coalesce, and since they fuse at 
once, either before or after coalescing with other threads or 
with whatever object they come in contact, the irregular mesh- 
work soon results. Afterwards the animal settles down to long- 
continued spinning, and silk is rapidly brushed on to the interior, 
first in one place and then in another. The threads now usually 
fuse separately, being applied in more or less parallel series of 
several side by side; and when both gale or tubercles are used 
together ten or twelve threads may be deposited at atime. The 
animal continues thus to work at intervals for days or even 
weeks, till the final dense tissue is at last produced over every 
part of the interior of the nest. The methods of three 
species, representing both main divisions of the Order, were 
observed in detail; they were essentially identical and probably 
characteristic of all Pseudoscorpiones. 
IX. List of References. 
1. Friscu, J. L.— Beschreibung von allerley Insecten in 
Teutsch-Land, viii. Berlin, 1730. 
2. Roser, A. J.—Der monatlich-herausgegebenen Insecten- 
Belustigung dritter Theil, Nurnberg, 1755. 
3. Hermann, J. F.—Meémoire Aptérologique. Strasbourg, 1804. 
4. De Turis, C.—Letitre addressée & M. Audouin sur quelques 
Arachnides des genres Hydrachna et Chelifer. Annales 
des Sciences naturelles, xxvil. pp. 57-78. Paris, 1832. 
