736 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
y. Protracheata. 
Peripatus from Dominica.* * * § — Miss E. C. Pollard has a few notes on 
the Peripatus from Dominica ; the number of ambulatory appendages is 
found to vary from twenty-five to thirty, hut it is the males, which are 
as a rule smaller than the females, that have twenty-five pairs, while the 
females have more, and, generally, twenty-nine. Comparisons are insti- 
tuted between this and other neotropical species. 
Peripatus jamaicensis.j — Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell has a few notes 
on this form, supplementary to those already given; there is great 
variation in the number of the legs. 
5. Arachnida. 
Classification of Scorpions.^ — Mr. R. I. Pocock, after giving tabular 
views of earlier classifications of Scorpions, proposes the following 
arrangement : — 
Fam. I. Scorpionidse. 
Sub-families, i. Scorpionini ; ii. Ischnurini ; iii. Diplocentrini ; 
iv. Hemiscorpini subf. n. ; v. Urodacini subf. n. 
„ II. Juridae. 
Subf. i. Jurini ; ii. Chserilini ; iii. Chaetini. 
„ III. Bothriuridae. 
„ IV. Buthidae. 
Opisthocentrus for OpisthacantJius africanus &c., Chiromachus for 
Ischnurus ochropus, Iomachus for Hormurus Iseviceps , Anuroctonus and 
Hadruroides are proposed new genera. 
Variations in Internal Anatomy of Gamasin8e.§ — Mr. A.D. Michael, 
who has especially studied the variations in the genital organs of these 
Mites, gives a very interesting account of a most remarkable mode of 
coition observed in Hsemogamasus Mrsutus. As the male seizes the 
female what looks like a hyaline sac appears in the mouth of the genital 
aperture of the male, and gradually attains its full size ; this, when 
reached, may exceed in length the length of the body of the male. The 
flask-shaped capsule is very elastic, and it is probably by its elasticity 
that the stopping is driven out of the narrow end ; this small end is 
applied to the female, and, as the contents of the flask are spermatozoa, 
the emptying of it is the natural termination of the act of coition. The 
form of the spermatic capsule differs in different species, but is constant 
for each. The male is provided with great accessory glands, which 
produce the liquid contents of the capsule, but the author cannot yet 
say where the wall of the capsule arises. 
With regard to the female organ of the Gamasinse, not only are there 
great differences in the same part in different species, but in a large 
section there is a whole set of organs which are absent from those as yet 
described, and these new organs vary among themselves. These unde- 
scribed organs consist of a lyre-shaped organ on the upper surface of 
the ovary, a part of which, indeed, Mr. Michael considers it to be ; he 
* Quart. Journ. Mier. Sci., xxxv. (1893) pp. 287-93 (1 pi.), 
t Zool. Anzeig., xvi. (1893) pp. 341-3. 
j Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., xii. (1893) pp. 303-30 (2 pis.). 
§ Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., v. (1892) pp. 281-324 (4 pis.). 
