THE HABITS OF SOME SCOEPIONS. 461 



bluebottle-fly ; they will also take the larvae and pupae o£ the 

 same insect. On several occasions I have witnessed the whole 

 process of capture and killing of such a fly. As with Andro- 



Fig. 2. 



Euscorpius piercing fly's head with its sting. 



ctonus so with Euscorpius, the prey came to the Scorpion by no 

 exercise of agility on the part of the latter, but simply through 

 the carelessness of the fly, who practically Avalked into the 

 Scorpion's arms. Thereupon the Scorpion firmly grasped the 



Fig. 3. 



Sketch showing Euscorpius using its chelicersB when sucting the juices of the 

 fly, and the manner in which this genus carries its tail, only slightly bent. 



fly with his left large chela, and very deliberately, whilst the fly 

 buzzed and struggled, brought up his sting over his head, and 

 carefully pierced the fly's head with his long, fine sting. Having 

 deliberately vnthdrawn his sting, he again quietly, and with an 

 air of much determination, again introduced the fine sting into 

 the fly's head. The slowness of this stinging process is perhaps 

 to be connected with the fact that the poison-glands have to be 

 compressed by their proper muscles, and the poison squeezed out 

 of the lumen of the gland after the sting has pierced the fly's 

 head. 



Having accomplished this operation the Scorpion walked 



