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A SUEYEY OF THE SCOEPION FAUNA OF SOUTH AFEICA. • 
By John Hewitt. 
(With Plates XIX-XXXII.) 
Introd^iction. 
The main features of the scorpion fauna of South Africa have been known 
for some years, though up to the present time no complete lists or descriptions 
of the fauna as a whole have been available, except such as are contained in 
Prof. Kraepelin's general work in Bo.s Tierreich. The literature on the 
subject is not very extensive. The descriptions of the earlier authors, 
G-ervais, C. L. Koch, and Peters, are unfortunately practically useless for 
present-day purposes, and I have made no attempt to identify species from 
their accounts. In the year 1877 Dr. ThorelFs important paper, the Etudes 
Scorpiologiques, was published : this contains excellent and detailed descrip- 
tions of various South African species, but as the author was unable to give 
locality data for his material the usefulness of his paper is greatly impaired. 
The distribution of the various species remained wholly unknown until 
Mr. E. I. Pocock published his series of papers on the South African material 
contained in the collection of the British Museum : those papers added 
greatly to the knowledge of scorpion systematics and distribution, for 
besides describing many new species, the author completely revised the 
various genera concerned as far as his material permitted. 
About the same time Prof. K. Kraepelin, of Hamburg, made various 
contributions to the same subject: he was able to examine many of the 
type- specimens of earlier authors, and thus we are indebted to this authority 
for the synonymy of various species. Kraepelin's important work in Bas 
Tierreich furnishes the modern classification of scorpions, and contains short 
■descriptions of all the species then known, with a complete bibliography : 
the distribution of South African species is, however, very imperfectly 
treated, for the author seems to have had comparatively little material at 
his disposal, and his account of the genera Hadogenes, Opisthacanthus, and 
Parabuthus is by this time obsolete. The most recent paper of Prof. 
Kraepelin (12)* contains a useful list of records from the territory then 
known as G-erman S.W. Africa. 
* Throughout this paper bracketed numbers indicate the literature referred to, and 
•correspond with those in the numbered list given at the end of the paper. 
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