154 SCORPIO OCCITANUS. 



plates (pectens) at the under base of the abdomen ; 

 tail composed of six joints terminated in an arched 

 sting, 



* Eyes eight in number. 



Spec. Char. Pecten with twenty-eight teeth ; body 

 yellowish ; tail longer than the body, with elevated 

 granular lines ; hands ovate, smooth ; last joint of the 

 tail globose ; no prominence under the sting. 



Scorpio occitanus; Amoreux, Jour, de Pfiys. i. an. 1789 ; Latr. Gen. Crust, el 

 Jns.i.132; Herbst. Nalur.Skorp.t.3,f.3. Scorpio tunetauus; Redi,deGen. 

 Ins. Scorpio 3 Maupert, Mem. de VAcad. des Scienc. an 1731, 1. 16, f. 3. 

 Buthus occitanus; Leach, Nat. Misc. iii. 1. 143. 



This is the animal with whose poison Redi and Maupertius made 

 their experiments. It is rather a small species, of a pale yellowish 

 colour, and is very common in Spain, under stones, in warm sandy 

 mountainous situations. The body is oblong, ovate, about an inch 

 and a half in length, and divided into six or seven segments ; on 

 the under side of the base of the abdomen are two laminated plates, 

 resembling the tooth of a comb, and furnished with twenty-eight 

 teeth. The legs are eight in number, slightly hairy underneath, 

 and terminated by two small curved claws. Besides the legs, in 

 common with the rest of the genus, it has two chelae, or hands, 

 situated on each side of the anterior part of the head, each com- 

 posed of four joints, the last of which is larger than the others, 

 ovate, smooth, and in the form of a forceps. The maxillee are 

 short, rounded, internally somewhat arched, and hairy. The eyes 

 are eight in number. The thorax is as broad as the abdomen, 

 somewhat cordate, and marked above with granular lines ; the tail 

 is composed of six joints, the last globular, ampullacious, very 

 smooth, and armed with a simple incurved mucro or sting, instilling 

 a poisonous fluid into the wound it inflicts. 



Scorpions feed on worms, spiders, small insects, and even on 

 one another. All the species are natives of warmer climates than 

 our own, concealing themselves under stones, or furniture in 



