Scorpiones . 
85 
are filled up with lamellae, which are arranged like the leaves of a Table- 
hook cases Nos. 
19 , 20 . 
A number of species possess sound-making organs, which are 
usually situated between the chelicerae or between the palp and 
the first leg. 
The scorpions are a very ancient group. Fossil species which 
closely resemble the living forms have been found in strata of the 
Silurian age. They differ from the Carboniferous and recent 
species chiefly in that the ter- 
minal segments of the legs are 
thicker, and that the tips of the 
legs are bluntly pointed and 
without movable claws. 
In the Geological Department, 
specimens of the Carboniferous 
scorpions ( Eoscorpius and Gyclo- 
phthalmus ) are exhibited in 
Gallery 8, Table-case 23, and 
Wall-case 13c. 
At the present time scorpions 
are found in all the warmer 
regions of the world. Several of 
the West African and* Indian 
species ( Pandinus and Palavi- 
naeus) are of very large size, 
one or two of them reaching a 
length of about nine inches. 
There are several European 
species, the largest of them 
belonging to the genus Buthus , 
which has two representatives in Buthus occitanus (slightly reduced). 
Europe. One of these ( Buthus 
occitanus ) is common in the South of Europe and also occurs 
in the North of Africa, and the other is found in Greece. 
Another member of the Buthidae ( Butheolus melanurus), which is 
of small size, lives in Sicily. The little black scorpions of the genus 
Euscorpius are abundant in the south of Europe. They live under 
stones and in other obscure situations, and sometimes make their 
way into houses in the wet weather ; there are four European 
species. An allied genus {B disarms'), with a single species, 
which has lost all trace of eyes, is restricted in distribution to the 
Eastern Pyrenees. One of the Buthidae -( Isomctrus maculatus ) 
