408 MR B. N. PEACH ON SOME 
Genus LHoscorpius, Meek and Worthen.* 
Generic Characters.—True scorpions with inflated carapaces bearing two 
large mesial eyes in front of tubes, directed so as to look “ obliquely forwards, 
outwards, and upwards,” and placed near the anterior margin, and in addition 
eight or more small lateral eyes placed half at each of the rounded anterior 
margins. Falces and palpi chelate. Walking limbs eight in number, and end- 
ing in movable claws. Combs ornamented with an embossed scale-like pattern 
and bearing numerous short and stout leaflets. Body suddenly narrows at the 
seventh abdominal segment, and becomes a narrow cylindrical jointed tail, the 
joints being fluted longitudinally on the ventral surface. 
From Cyclopthalmus (Corda), the only other described Carboniferous genus, 
the arrangement of the eyes distinguishes it. In the former, the lateral eyes are 
placed in a circlet round the large mesial ones, from which arrangement, the 
name is derived ;+ the falces are not chelate, and the abdomen does not con- 
tract suddenly at the spring of the tail as in the latter. The position, size, and 
arrangement of the large mesial eyes and the more elaborate combs distinguish 
Hoscorpius from recent genera. 
Although there seems to be sufficient reason to separate the genus from 
any recent one, these ancient scorpions appear not to differ in any essential 
character from those now living. As far as the horny test, the only part 
now preserved to us, is concerned, they were as highly organised and specialised 
towards the beginning of the Carboniferous period as their descendants at the 
present day. It is unfortunate on that account that Messrs MrrEx and 
WortHEN should have chosen the name Loscorpius, for the dawn of the 
scorpion family must have been at a much earlier period, and we may hope 
that their remains will yet turn up in the Devonian and Silurian plant-beds 
when these come to be thoroughly searched. 
In the same volume in which they described the EF. carbonarius, Messrs 
Meek and WorTHEN give a description of a fossil from the Carboniferous rocks 
of Illinois, which they consider to be the remains of a pseudo-scorpion, and to 
which they give the name of Mazonia Woodiana, forming the genus for its re- 
ception.{ Figs. 24 and 24a give a copy of some of the figures. After having 
had the opportunity of studying the above collection of Scotch scorpions, I 
have little hesitation in looking upon their Mazonza as a true scorpion, and their 
remarks show them to have had a strong inclination in the same direction. The 
* “ American Journ. Science and Arts,” 2d ser, vol. xlv. p. 25. 
+ Vide Buckland’s “ Bridgewater Treatise,” vol. ii. pls. 46’ and 46”, where there is a reproduction of 
Corpa’s figures, Fig. 25 is a copy after Buckland of the carapace of C. senior enlarged, showing the 
mesial and lateral eyes. 
{ “ Geological Survey of Illinois,” vol. iii. pp. 563-565. 
