KONGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND. 21. N:0 9. 



II. DESCRIPTION OF THE SCORPION. 



Ordo SCORPIONES Sund., 1838. 



Subordo APOXYPODES n.^) 



Fam. PAL/tOPHONOID/E n. 



Gen. PAL^OPHONUS Thor. et Lindstr. 1884. 



P. nimcius Thor. et Lindstr. 1884. 



Hands of the palpi hroader than the base of the tail; tail ahout three and one-sixth 

 times as long as the cephalothorax. Figs. 1 — 9. 



Syn.: 1884. Palaophonvs [-eus\ nmcius Thok. et Lindste., in Comptes rendus .... de TAcad. des Sciences 

 de Paris, vol. XCIX, p. 984, (1 Déc. 1884). 

 1884. Palceoplionus nuncius IiD., in The Glasgow Herald, Dec. 19, 1884 (»Disoovery of a Silurian fossil 

 Scorpion»)^). 



Description. — The cephalothorax (carapace) is almost quadrate, scarcely broa- 

 der behind than in front, and very nearly as long as broad; its front margin is very 

 broadly but rather faintly emarginate, and nearly straight in the middle, with the 

 angles or fr antal lohes (fig. 4, If) strongly rounded; the hind margin is very slightly 

 concave or emarginate along its whole breadth, with the angles somewhat rounded. 

 The sides, which are nearly straight and parallel, have a triangulär indentation behind 

 the frontal lobes, which, however, did not probably exist in the living animal. Pa- 

 rallel with its posterior margin, the cephalothorax shows a broad and strong transverse 

 furrow, which extends nearly to the lateral margins, where it either expands to form 

 a triangulär figure, or is slightly bifurcate; the furroAV is very shallow in the middle 

 and is produced a little forwards, so as to form a very obtuse angle. The part of 

 the cephalothorax behind this furrow is, in the middle, about one fourth of the total 

 length of the cephalothorax: it much resembles a separate segment, having nearly the 

 same length in the middle as the first dorsal plate of the abdomen. 



Not far from the frontal margin there is a well defined ovate, somewhat ele- 

 vated area, the »eye-tubercle» (figs. 1 and 4, to) — so called in consequence of its 



1) For the characters of the suborder, the family and the genus, see below, section IV. 



^) The name of the genus should be written, as it is here, Palaophonus, not PalaopJwneus. 



K. Vet. Akad. Handl. Bd. 21. K:o 9. •" 



