ANTHRACOSCORPIO. 21 



(p. 13) the name sparthensis must be retained. The characters relied upon for 

 separating sparthensis as a distinct species are : (1) A difference of 1 mm. in total 

 length ; (2) a shorter and narrower abdomen ; (3) shorter caudal segments ; (4) a 

 narrower hand. 



Since Scorpions vary in size both individually when adult and according to 

 age, the first character clearly has no value. The second may be similarly dismissed 

 because the length and girth of the abdomen vary enormously in accordance with 

 the degree of repletion of this region with food or embryos ; it is usually, moreover, 

 narrower and shorter in males than in females. The third character appears to 

 me to have no foundation in fact, so far as I can judge from the rough sketch of 

 the type of E. sparthensis which I made for Mr. Baldwin when he asked my advice 

 about the specimen, and which he reproduced in his paper. Finally, as regards 

 the hand of E. sparthensis, its apparent narrowness is simply due to the fact that 

 it is axially rotated to a greater degree so that the movable digit is concealed by 

 the immovable. Hands of scorpions are always narrower in this position than 

 when resting so as to display the movable digit from the dorsal side. 



The type of E. sparthensis, measuring about 74 mm. in total length, is imbedded 

 in an ironstone nodule from the Middle Coal Measures of Sparth Bottom, near 

 Rochdale in Lancashire. It is in the Manchester Museum. The Bohemian 

 example in the British Museum measures about 75 mm. According to my observa- 

 tions upon this specimen, Fritsch's drawings of it on pi. xii of his monograph 

 are inaccurate, notably, for example, in the curvature of the immovable digits of 

 the chelae. 



Anthracoscorpio dunlopi, sp. nov. Plate I, fig. 1 ; Text-figure 5. 



Of large size, approximately equalling the length of the largest known species 

 of the order. Carapace approximately as long apparently as the humerus or 

 brachium or movable digit of the chela, and not very much shorter than the sum 

 of the first and second caudal segments. Its exact length, however, is uncertain, 

 because the posterior border is not defined, and the portions I interpret as the 

 frontal lobes may possibly be the basal segments of the cheliceras. Since, however, 

 these lobes are sculptured with longitudinal grooves, and the basal segments of 

 the chelicerae in recent Scorpions are polished so as to slide beneath the carapace, 

 I judge the pieces in question to belong to the carapace. If this be correct the 

 anterior border is emarginate, with a median notch from which a well-defined 

 furrow-like groove extends backwards to the ocular tubercle, becoming shallower 

 posteriorly. The tubercle is elongate, pointed behind and situated nearly in the 

 middle of the carapace. The two eyes are indistinctly defined. No trace of 

 lateral eyes has been preserved. Behind the tubercle a groove extends backwards 

 towards the posterior border. On the left side of the posterior half of the 



