SCORPIO AMERICANUS. 15/ 



antennae whitish ; /lands subcordate, scabrous and 

 hairy. 



Scorpio afer; Lin. Fabr.; Seba, i. t. 70, f. 1-4; Ra-sel, iii. t. 05; llcrbst. t. 1 j 

 Shaw, Nat. Misc. iii. 1. 109. 



Inhabits India, Persia, and some parts of Africa. It is by far 

 the largest and most formidable of the scorpion tribe, measuring 

 eight or ten inches from the tip of the hands to the extremity of 

 the tail. The prevailing colour is a deep glossy brown, approach- 

 ing in some specimens to black. It is much dreaded in Africa, 

 where the activity of the poison is frequently productive of serious 

 evils, and where the wound has been neglected, the consequences 

 have been fatal. Lichtenstein, in his Travels in Southern Africa, 

 says, in warm nights there is a very great danger of being stung by 

 them, and relates, that a few weeks before his arrival at the Cape, 

 a melancholy proof had been given of the dangerous nature of 

 their poison. One of the slaves of a Mr. Van Wyk, when she was 

 busied in collecting dry wood, had the misfortune to be stung in 

 the hand by one, which was probably concealed under the bark of 

 the oldest and driest pieces. All the usual remedies were imme- 

 diately applied, but the girl, notwithstanding, died in eighteen 

 hours. During the cold weather this dangerous animal seldom 

 comes abroad, and loses in some degree the power of darting its 

 sting, so that the wound is less dangerous. 



SCORPIO AMERICANUS.— America?! Scorpion. 



Spec. Char. Pccten with fourteen teeth ; hands some- 

 what ciliated ; fingers filiform. 



Scorpio Americanus ; Lin. ; Roesel, Ins. iii. t. 60, f. 5. Scorpion lachete ; De Geer> 

 Mem. Ins. vii. t. 61, f. 9 et 10; Ilerbst. t. 6, f. 3. 



Inhabits South America ; and is very common at Sierra Leone, 

 in Africa. 



