196 



Kew : Lincolnshire Pseudoscorpions. 



leg had claws precisely resembling- those of a lobster, with one of which it 

 had grasped the unfortunate fly ; its body was flat, like a bug (Cimex), and 

 resembled that insect in colour but was smaller. I unfortunately lost sight 

 of the fly in an unsuccessful attempt to capture it. . . . O., London, July 

 19. 1830.* 



The animal, as Professor Henslow suggested at the time, was 

 certainly a Pseudoscorpion. f Subsequently the same corre- 

 spondent recorded two other similar observations ; % and 

 W. B.B.W. in the same magazine stated that he had often taken 

 ' Chelifer cancroides ' and other Chelifers attached to the legs of 

 the house-fly (Mnsca domes tica) and two other Diptera.|| A fur- 

 ther observation was communicated, in 1835, by Mr. G. Moore 

 to ' The Entomological Magazine ' : 



Last summer I watched the manoeuvres of a Musca Domestica that had 

 one of these crab-like dependents {Chelifer cancroides] attached to its femur. 

 It was in the window of a cold and damp out-office. The fly appeared but 

 little annoyed, and continued to travel tardily about the glass, while its 

 hanger-on busily occupied its free claw in seizing such minute objects as 

 came in its way, — at least such appeared to be its business. On attempting 

 to catch the fly, off" it flew to another window with its wingless passenger. 

 I followed closely and quickly, when lo ! the little appendix relaxed its 

 grasp, and dropped itself into a crevice in the frame, where I secured it. § 



An anonymous editorial note adds that the 'Chelifer cancroides' 

 is abundant on planks and bricks placed on decayed vegetable 

 matter, and that Lonchcea vaginalis, a little fly common in the 

 same situations during June, is particularly infested by it, and 

 also by Acari. The fly, apparently uninjured, is seen on 

 windows, the note says, with the Chelifers attached to its 

 trochanters. ' k ' k Dr. H. Loew mentions having found, in August 

 1841, another little fly, Ulidia demandata, running about in 

 numbers on dry stems on a waste place on the parade-ground at 

 Ofen, and so pursued by ' Chelifer corallinus ' that it was 

 difficult to find specimens free from the attachment of this 

 Arachnid. ft Dr. Gerstaecker, of Berlin, in 1862, reported the 



*0., Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, IV. (1831), p. 94. 

 t J. S. Henslow, ibid., p. 284. 

 ZO., ibid., V. (1832), p. 754. 



|| W. B.B.W. , ibid., VII. (1834), p. 162; and see also ' Beobachtungen 

 englischer Naturforscher iiber die Afterskorpione,' Archiv fur Naturge- 

 schichte, Jahrg. 1. (1835), Bd. 2, p. 186. 



§ G. Moore, Entomological Magazine, II. (1835), p. 321. 

 **Ed., Entomological Mag-azine, II. (1835), p. 322. Edward Doubleday 

 is understood to have edited this volume in place of Edward Newman, who 

 was responsible for the others ; but the note may be by Francis Walker, or 

 some other member of the old Entomological Club. 

 ttH. Loew, ' Dipterologische Beitrage,' 1845, p. 29. 



Naturalist, 



