ANATOMY 



425 



into contact, fought desperately, the one ultimately devouring the 

 other. It was noteworthy that the one which was first fairly seized 

 immediately resigned itself to its fate without a struggle. As is the 

 case with some spiders, the female is said occasionally to kill and 

 devour the male. A Mashonaland species, Solpuga sericea, feeds 

 on termites, 1 while a South Californian Galeodes kills bees, 2 enter- 

 ing the hives in search of them. They are fairly good climbers. 

 In Egypt Galeodes arabs climbs on to tables to catch flies, and 

 some species have been observed to climb trees. 



That their pedipalps, in addition to their sensory function 

 (see p. 426), possess a sucking apparatus, is clear from an observa- 



who 

 of 



C/l* 



tion of Lonnberg, 3 

 kept specimens 

 Galeodes araneoides im- 

 prisoned in rectangular 

 glass boxes, up the per- 

 pendicular sides of which 

 they were able to climb 

 for some distance by their 

 palps, but, being able to 

 obtain no hold by their 

 legs, they soon tired. 



External Anatomy. 

 The body of Galeodes 

 consists of a cephalo- 

 thorax and an abdomen, 

 both portions being dis- 

 tinctly segmented. The 

 cephalothorax consists of 

 six segments, the first 

 thoracic segment being 

 fused with the two 

 cephalic segments to 

 form a sort of head, 



while the last three thoracic segments are free, and there is 

 almost as much freedom of movement between the last two 

 thoracic segments as between the thorax and the abdomen. The 

 " cephalic lobes," which give the appearance of a head, have been 



1 Pocock, Nature, Ivii., 1897, p. 618. 2 Cook, Nature, Iviii., 1898, p. 247. 

 3 Ofv. Ak. Fork. Ivi., 1899, p. 977. 



FIG. 217. Rhayodes sp., ventral view. Nat. size. 

 a, Anus ; ch, chelicerae ; g. o, genital operculum ; 

 n, racket organs ; p, pedipalp ; 1, 2, 3, 4, ambu- 

 latory legs. (After Bernard.) 



