Book Description

Excerpt from Journal of the New York Entomological Society, Vol. 3: Devoted to Entomology in General; 1895 Mr. H. G. Hubbard has lately sent me a large number of interesting Pseudoscorpions from various parts of the United States. Several new species are contained in the collection, which also affords new localities for many known forms. I hope sometime in the future to make a somewhat elaborate work on this interesting group of Arachnida, but I am aware that there are many new forms yet to be discovered in the arid and in the mountainous regions of the west. Therefore I would only give at present a revision of all the forms known to me. The Pseudoscorpions form a very strongly circumscribed group. Of the general structure of the scorpions, they differ from them in several ways. They have no post-abdomen; there is no longitudinal furrow on the cephalothorax, while transverse ones are frequently present; there is no median pair of eyes; there are no pectines, which perhaps may find their homologue in the spinning organs; and there are some minor differences in the mandibles, legs, etc. Prof. Luigi Balzan has (in Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 1891) given a new and elaborate classification of the Pseudoscorpions based principally on the South American forms. The principal new point introduced by him, is the value he assigns to the serrula of the mandibles. This, I think, he has much over-estimated; and would put more faith in the sutures of the cephalothorax and in the longitudinal division of the abdominal scutæ. The two main divisions do not differ much in their composition; but Olpiunt and Atemnis, which according to Balzan are placed with the Cheliferidæ, I would place in the Obisiidæ;. Moreover I have tried to bring the classification into the style of that usually adopted by the best entomologists. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.