128 
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa. 
toothlike or distinctly laterally compressed. Tergites more 
or less longitudinally striped, the middle keel partly 
blackened ; vesicle ochraceous ..... ?7. lineatus, Koch. 
13. Very like lineatus, but vesicle deeply blackened on the 
sides and below; tergites with well defined yellow >< -shaped 
marks ; tubercle below aculeus conical and blunted : 
enlarged terminal tooth of superior crest on caudal segments 
II and III thick and blunt at the apex in the male . U. insignis, Poc. 
14. Close to insiqyiis, but distinguished by the total absence of 
the inferior lateral crest or edge in the fifth caudal segment ; 
no well developed granular crests on tail ; caudal seginent 
V coarsely and thickly granular, especially below ; vesicle 
thickly granular, the tubercle below the aculeus very low, 
convex or almost quite obsolete, never pointed or toothlike. 
Tail relatively longer than in lineatus and insignis. 
Female of U. marlothi, Pure. 
aeii. KAEASBEEGMA Hewitt. 
K. METHUBNi Hewitt (PI. XXJfig. 22j, Ann. Transvaal Mus. iv, p. 148, 
pi. XV, fig. 2, 1914. 
Distribution : The types came from Narudas Siid and Quibis in G-reat 
Namaland. The species is also known to me from Kakamas (Miss H. C. 
Olivier) and from Upington (E. Gr. D. Steyn). 
The more important characters of the species are : The whole inferior 
surface of the first, second, and third caudal segments has numerous coarse, 
irregularly arranged granules, the granular area being bounded laterally 
by a well-defined row of enlarged granules, which along the posterior edge 
of the segment merge into a more or less continuous granular ridge. 
Pectinal teeth 11-13. Vesicle and tail coarsely punctate at the sides. In 
this species the relative breadth of the sternum is greater than in the genus. 
Uroplectes. The lateral eyes are ill-developed. 
I regard Karashergia methueni as the most primitive member of the 
South African Buthidae, a conclusion drawn from the nature of the digital 
dentition, the dentition of the chelicerae, the absence of keels on the carapace 
and of lateral keels on the tergites, and, lastly, the simplicity of the basal 
pectinal tooth in the female. At the same time, the characters of the first 
three caudal segments are greatly specialised, perhaps in adaptation to a 
sandy habitat ; the modifications of those segments are very like what occurs 
in Parabuthus hrevimanus Thor., and it is of interest to note that both 
species were collected by Miss H. C. Olivier at Kakamas. 
