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Show 1890.] OF THE FAMILY BUTHID.E. 125 the inferior keels on the posterior segments ; the vesicle and aculeus are large and there is no spine beneath the aculeus. The pectines are armed with many teeth, which are all alike in both sexes; and the sternum is reduced to a minimum, being smaller than in any of the genera hitherto considered. The males have a wider hand than the females; and the females of most of the species may be recognized by the possession of a remarkable internal lobate dilatation of the base of the pectines. This dilatation, although it appears to belong to the shaft of the pecten, results, I am now inclined to think, from the fusion of the enlarged basal tooth with the sclerite that supported it. If this be so, the character can be directly derived from what is seen in Grosphus, where the tooth is enlarged but still free, and it unmistakably points to Grosphus as the ancestor of Parabuthus. The Museum possesses examples of the following representatives of this subgenus :- P. liosoma, Ehrb. Symb. Phys. no. 10. P. villosus, Peters, Monatsb. Ak. Wiss. Berlin, 1862, p. 26; Thorell, Etudes Scorpiol. p. 29. P. planicauda. \ Pocock, Ann. Nat. Hist. (6) iii. p. 344 (1889). P. brevimanus, Thorell, op. cit. p. 36. P. fulvipes, Simon, Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. vii. p. 378 (1888). Subgenus BUTHUS, s. s. Buthus, Leach, Trans. Linn. Soc. xi. p. 391 (1815)-type occitanus (=europceus, Linn.). Androctonus (Leiurus), Hempr. & Ehrb. Verh. nat. Fr. Berlin, i. p. 352 (1829)-type tunetanus ( = europceus, Linn.). Hab. The Old World, except Australia. The denticles on the digits of the chela very much resemble in arrangement those of Parabuthus; but in the majority of cases the teeth of the internal series appear to have taken up a more forward position, so that they alternate with the teeth of the external series and do not form with them oblique short rows. The cephalothorax is (? always) furnished with symmetrically placed granular keels, and the tergites with at least three granular keels. The tail is moderately powerful; there is no spine beneath the aculeus, and the upper sides of the fifth caudal segment are rounded and not compressed and carinate. The pectines are long, all the teeth are alike, and there are no noticeable sexual variations in these organs. The ' manus ' of the male may be wider than in the female and the dactyli may be more lobate and sinuate, but generally speaking the sexes are hard to recognize. This subgenus contains more species than auy other genus or subgenus of the family. These species are found principally in the countries bordering the Mediterranean ; but from thence they spread southwards along the west and east coasts of Africa to the Cape of Good Hope, and eastwards through Persia and Afghanistan to Pekin 1 ? = capensis (Ehrb.) PROC 7QOL. Soc-1890 ,No. X. 10 |
