PAIRIXG OF PSEUDOSCORPIONES. 377 



their pairing, yet without success. So also Mclntire (5), who 

 had great experience witli several species in captivity, Avatched 

 patiently for amiable traits, but all in vain. Schtschelkanowzefl", 

 in fact, appears to be the only author who has seen the pairing of 

 any animal of this Order. He states, in a memoir published in 

 1910 (17), that he saw this act frequently in a species of Chellftr 

 {Cherries) ; and he has established the fact that fertilization is 

 eff'ected without intromission of a copulatoiy organ. But he did 

 not see exactly what took pla,ce ; and the remarkable details of the 

 process remain, it is believed, quite unknown. 



Mr. R. I. Pocock called the writer's attention to this subject 

 in 1903, since which time a careful watch has been kept on these 

 animals, both in the open and in captivity. 



The captive individuals, it may be explained, were housed in 

 what are known as " Mclntii-e cells " ; that is to say, in little cases 

 about three inches long, an inch or so broad, and a quarter of an 

 inch or less high. The] body was of sheet-cork, the floor of glass 

 covered with blotting-paper, and the roof of clear glass ; the whole 

 V)eing held together by rubber-bands. The glass forming the roof 

 was transversely cut and hinged, so that food and moisture could 

 be readily administered *. In these abodes the animals lived in 

 health for a long time, and they were easily watched both under 

 low powers of the mici'oscope and with a lens. Observation was 

 facilitated, it may be added, by the animals walking on the under 

 surface of the roof, so as to expose to view the genital area, which 

 occupies in this Order the usual position at the base of the 

 abdomen. 



The sexes meet in ordinary walking position head to head, and, 

 after some preliminary fencing, the male manages to grasp with 

 one or both of the hands of the palps one or both of the hands of 

 the palps of the female. Early observations sliowed this to be the 

 case in Chelifer cimicoides Fabr.t, whose pairing, however, has 

 not yet been fully made out. Similar behaviour was afterwards 

 witnessed in the relatively gigantic Chelifer cyrnens L. Koch, and 

 it was on this species that most of my observations were made. 

 First of all, however, something must be said of Chelifer latreillU 

 Leach, an animal subgenerically distinct from those just named 

 and one of considerable interest in many respects. 



II. Pairing q/" Chelifer latreillii Leach. 



Clcelifer latreillii, always maritime in Britain, ranges with us 

 from Fifeshire to Sussex, and is excessively abundant on the 

 great sand-dunes of the coasts of Lincolnshire and Norfolk. In 

 such places it makes its home for the most part in the tussocks of 

 Ammophila arenaria ; but it evidently moves about freely, being 

 found often under pieces of wood, etc., on the sandy ground. 



It belongs to the subgenus Chelifer s. s., a small group 



* Cf. Mclntire (4), pp. 71-2. 



f For the nomenclature emploj-ed in this paper, cf. Kew (18). 



