A Survey of the Scorjnori Fauna of South Africa. 
91 
For convenience sake, the northern limits of South Africa are taken as 
the Zambesi and Cunene Eivers. Two faunistic areas may be roughly dis- 
tinguished, viz. (1) a Western area extending from the south-west portion of 
the Cape northwards to Damaraland, and including the karroid regions of 
the Cape and the Kalahari desert; (2) an Eastern area extending from 
Southern Ehodesia southward to eastern Cape Province and thence for some 
distance along the southern coast. The Western area is very prolific in 
species of Opisthophthalmus and Parabuthus : the Eastern area is very 
poor in species of those genera, but is characterised by a rich development 
of the genera Cheloctonus and Opisthacanthus, the former being apparently 
peculiar to the eastern parts of South Africa. 
A good many additions to our faunistic list may be anticipated from 
future workers. The vast area of Southern Ehodesia is largely unexplored, 
except in the neighbourhoods of Bulawayo and Salisbury. Namaqualand 
and Damaraland, which have evidently a rich Arachnid fauna, will probably 
yield many novelties, and in any case the species already recorded therefrom 
are still very imperfectly known : it is significant that only three years ago 
a hitherto unknown genus, as well as several other new forms, were taken 
during a short visit to Namaqualand by the Hon. P. A. Methuen. 
The locality data recorded in this paper are based on material in the 
Albany Museum, except where otherwise stated. I am greatly indebted to 
Dr. Breijer, the Director of the Transvaal Museum, for permission to 
examine the extensive collections in that institution, and to several members 
of the Transvaal Museum staff, especially Mr. Gr. van Dam and Mr. A. 
Eoberts, for so consistently obtaining scorpion material from every available 
locality. Mr. A. S. Hirst, the Curator of Arachnida in the British Museum, 
has helped me on various occasions with detailed descriptions of material 
under his charge, and several years ago, during my visit to the British 
Museum for the purpose of examining Mr. Pocock's types, his kind assist- 
ance and advice were of great service. For the loan of material I also 
desire to express my indebtedness to the authorities of the Durban Museum, 
the King Williamstown Museum, the McG-regor Museum, Kimberley, the 
Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg, the Port Elizabeth Museum, and the 
Ehodesian Museum, Bulawayo. Lastly, to numerous private persons, whose 
names are mentioned hereafter, I am especially grateful for their assistance 
in collecting these somewhat unattractive creatures for the Albany Museum, 
the extensive Arachnid collections of that institution having been built up 
entirely through voluntary effort. 
^ Some General Remarks on Variation and Distribution. 
When devoting considerable time to the critical examination of some 
thousands of specimens one cannot be unmindful of the opinions of those 
modern evolutionists who hold that the phenomenon of species is an illusion. 
