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XXXII. 
ON THE OCCURRENCE OF CHERNES GODEREYI KEW, AND 
OTHER FALSE-SCORPIONS IN HERTFORDSHIRE. 
By Charles Oldham, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 
Read at Watford, 27th March, 1911. 
In June, 1910, Mr. F. Gr. Pitts, of Hatfield, kindly sent to 
me a drawing of a liouse-fly with a small false-scorpion attached 
to one of its forelegs. Writing from the County Surveyor’s 
Office on the 13th, he said : “ On the window at this office to-day 
there was a common house-fly, and attached to one leg was 
a small crab-like object which the fly vainly endeavoured to get 
rid of, but as soon as it cleared one leg the parasite fastened on 
another and sometimes on two.” 
In response to my request for specimens Mr. Pitts very 
courteously wrote again on the 24th, and sent two false-scorpions 
which were clinging to one fly. These I forwarded to Mr. Wallis 
Kew, the well-known authority on the group, who informed 
me that they were not, as I had supposed, referable to Cherries 
nodosus (Schrank), but to an undescribed species. In his 
recently published “ Synopsis of the False-Scorpions of Britain 
and Ireland,” # Mr. Kew has separated this species from the 
closely allied C. nodosus under the name C. godfreyi. In addition 
to Hatfield, the localities from which he has hitherto seen 
specimens are Petersham; Newport, Isle of Wight; South 
Norwood; Oban, Scotland ; and Eathmines, co. Dublin. 
Mr. Kew enumerates twenty-two false-scorpions in his synopsis, 
but, apart from Chernes godfreyi, only five have apparently been 
taken hitherto in Herts. This number would no doubt be 
increased if attention were paid to the group by local naturalists. 
Almost nothing is known of the habits or life-history of any of 
the species, and I venture to submit the following meagre list in 
the hope that some member of the Society will take up the study 
of these interesting creatures. I have to thank Mr. Kew for 
his kindness in identifying my specimens. 
Chernes nodosus (Schrank).—Pecorded from Herts, without 
details of locality, by Mr. F. O. Pickard-Cambridge.f 
Obisium muscorum Leach.—I have taken this species at 
Bricket Wood and Hunton Bridge; and, abundantly, among 
fallen leaves, at Hastoe Hill, near Tring, and Whippendell 
Wood, Watford. 
Chthonius rayi Koch.—Under lumps of chalk on the down at 
Aldburv, and among fallen leaves at Hastoe Hill, near Tring. 
C. orthodactylus (Leach).—Two specimens under a lump of 
chalk in an old pit near Wheathampstead, 16th October, 1910. 
* ‘ Proe. Roy. Irish Acad.,’ vol. xxix, section B, No. 2, 1911. 
t ‘ Victoria History of the County of Hertford,’ vol. i, p. 180. 
