THE 
CANCROID PHALANpiyW, 
Generic Character. 
Eight Legs. 
Two vertical and two lateral Eyes. 
Antenna refembling legs. 
Abdomen rounded. 
Specific Character. 
PHALANGIUM with obovate deprefied abdo¬ 
men, and fmooth chelae, (lightly hairy at 
the tips. 
This little jnfedt, which has long been known to na- 
turalifts, has been occafionally referred to very different 
genera. The celebrated and laborious Swammerdam 
has defcribed it as a fpecies of Scorpion. In.the works 
of Roefel it is alfo regarded as a Scorpion. In the 
twelfth edition of the Syftema Naturce of Linnteus it is 
ranked under the genus Phalangium; while in the Fauna 
Suecica of the fame author it is made an Acarus. The 
■ . £ • 
ingenious Degeer jnftitutes for it a feparate genus under 
the name of Chelifer. Laftly Fabricius in his Syftema 
Entomologiae has remanded it to the genus Scorpio, to 
which perhaps it is more nearly allied than to any other. 
This infeft feems to vary confiderably in fize; thofe 
which 
