mNERA.RY. XXI 



the small, often close, unrlergrowth. During such partial floods an 

 astonishing assemblage of insects and arachnids, the latter especially, 

 may be met with clinging together on the leafy tops of the small stems, 

 all apparently too much occupied in securing their safety in the flood 

 than in troubling themselves about attacking each other or about being 

 attacked. A passage through undergrowth under these conditions, in 

 picris naturalibus, was once a noteworthy experience on a trip between 

 the Upper Demerara and Essequibo rivers, in the neighbourhood of 

 the Great Falls. On a short journey from camp to the Mai ooioo 

 INIountain, we had stripped in order to cross a temporarily flooded 

 valley, cax'rying our clothes aloft to keep them as dry as possible for 

 camping at night; and it was with dread that we saw that, under the 

 heavy forest, the small undergrowths against which we Avere continually 

 V)rushing, were thick, above the water, with a clinging mass of scorpions, 

 centipedes, and spiders of all sorts, also the somewhat rare Fliryvus 

 reniformis, Avhich, under its local name of "ting-ting," has such a 

 bad reputation for its "sting," besides caterpillars, bvish-cockroaches, 

 ants, beetles, etc., of all sorts and sizes. Though we had to wade for 

 quite a long distance, none of the party suti'ered in any way, the 

 insects being all too busy clinging to their perches for their own 

 safety. None of us felt quite hap})y, however, under the circumstances. 



The Phrynus, though ordinarily seldom seen, is at times fovmd in 

 quite large numbers in diy and daik disused or unfrequented situations, 

 whether of wood, stone, or earth, and even in the towns, and especially 

 about old cellars and buildings, abandoned mine-shafts and tunnels, or 

 in caves or rocky hollows. Their peculiar aspect, derived from their 

 astonishingly modified appendages, is no doubt responsible for their 

 very bad reputation among the coast people and settlers generally, by 

 whom they are regarded as being even more dangerous than the 

 poisonous snakes, as they are commonly said to "fly at" you. Tlio 

 pair of limbs modified as long tactile organs, and carried horizontally 

 extended, allows them to alight safely from long distances, and this 

 probably explains their i-eputed halnt. Certainly the spines of the 

 long, anterior, prehensile ajtpendages look forbidding enough, but they 

 cimld only be of any real service to the creature in helping it to seize and 

 .secure the sujall objects on which it would prey. The poison-glands of 

 the gnathites are comparatively small, and from the similarity of the 

 poison in all these organisms could certainly not produce eflects even 

 corresponding to those of its larger congeners. 



Scorpions and centipedes are very freipiently foimd about the thatch 

 of the houses up country, and in the Indian settlements, especially in 

 the more open sheds, and in those that have been unoccupied for some 

 time. Projecting pegs, or nails, high up on the posts, on which clothes 

 may be hung, are favourite perches for scor])ious, especially at night; 

 and I have occa.sionally been stung by them on the fingers while taking 

 ofi" a garment from such pegs. Luckily such specimens have always 

 })een rather small ones; ami beyond the sharp pain at the time before 

 the ap[)lication of ammonia, and a slight swelling of the glands of the 

 shoulder, there was little real discomfort. Cases are not uncommon, 

 however, where the stings of proliably large specimens have rosidlcd in 

 seiious illness, with high fever, greatly swollen glands, and much 



