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Show 126 MR. R. I. POCOCK ON THE SCORPIONS [Mar. 18, and Singapore. But beyond these limits no species have been recorded1. By the form of the tail the species have been, and may be, divided into two sections. The first is composed of those in which the fifth caudal segment is posteriorly excavated above, and has its infero-lateral keels weakly and uniformly denticulate throughout. Of this group theMuseum possesses examples of the following:-B. hottentota (Fabr.), W . Africa; B. minax, L. Koch, Egypt ( = ? acutecarinatus, Simon) ; B. eminii, Pocock, E. Africa ; B. socotrensis, Pocock, Socotra ; B.judaicus, Simon, Syria ; and B. martensii, Karsch, India. To the second section, comprising those forms in which the fifth caudal segment is but slightly, if at all, excavated above posteriorly and in which its inferior keels are irregularly and as a rule strongly denticulate, are to be referred a great number of species, which seem to be more highly specialized than those in the first category. Subgenus PRIONURUS, Ehrb. Prionurus, Hempr. & Ehrenb. Verh. nat. Fr. Berlin, i. p. 356 (1829)-type funestus ( = australis, Linn.). Prionurus, Peters, Monatsb. Ak. Wiss. Berlin, 1862, p. 5 1 3- type funestus ( = australis, Linn.). Androctonus, Thorell, Etudes Scorpiol.-type australis (Linn.). Not Prionurus, Karsch, Berl. ent. Zeitschr. xxx. (1886) p. 77. Hab. N. Africa and Syria. This subgenus is closely allied to the preceding, and differs merely in having the lateral margins of the upper surface of the fifth caudal segment compressed and carinate, instead of rounded. The tail is always strong, sometimes exceedingly powerful. It is not quite clear as to what is to be the name for this group. In his work on the Scorpions Ehrenberg constituted the genus Androctonus ; and without definitely naming a type species divided the genus into two subgenera. The first of these-the small-tailed forms-he named Leiurus, with the type tunetanus or quinque-striatus; to the second or thick-tailed forms he gave the name Prionurus, with the type funestus. W h e n Peters revised the group he concluded that the two sections should constitute genera; consequently he abolished Androctonus, apparently because it was without a type species; made, and rightly, Leiurus a synonym oi Buthus, but preserved Prionurus as a genus in almost the sense in which the name was used by Ehrenberg. But Dr. Thorell, recognizing that the name Androctonus must take precedence of either one or other of its subgenera and that a type must consequently be fixed upon for it, decided to upset Peters's arrangement and to substitute Androctonus for his Prionurus. But according to the system which has been followed, as far as possible, throughout this paper-that is, the system of selecting the first species mentioned under a genus as the type of the genus, when no other is specified-the type of Androctonus is tunetanus. But 1 Androctonus varicgatus, Gerv., from N e w Ireland, is in all probability an lsometrus. |