1897] 



NOTES AND COMMENTS 227 



Mr G. H. K. Marshall, the observer, seems inclined to attribute the 

 sound produced to "trituration of the creature's powerful jaws 

 against the hard ground in which they seem to prefer to dig their 

 holes, the operation being performed with the jaws, and the sound 

 ceasing when the spider stops digging." Although Mr Marshall 

 kept them alive he failed to detect any stridulation, though they 

 made a considerable noise by energetically biting at the sides of the 

 boxes, one of them nearly succeeding in escaping by gnawing its way 

 through at one spot. A further note is to the effect that the 

 Solfugae succumb more rapidly to the cyanide bottle than the ordinary 

 spiders or scorpions ; and Mr Pocock, in emoting Mrs Monteiro, to 

 the effect that a large black scorpion was confined eight hours in a 

 strong poison bottle before it succumbed, states that this is no doubt 

 due to the fact of the richer development of the respiratory system 

 in Solpuga. A further note of Mr Marshall's corroborates Hutton's 

 observation as to the use of the terminal organ on the palpus. This 

 is a gelatinous fan-shaped sucker with which the animal has the 

 power of picking up objects, probably prey, and conveying them to 

 its mandibles. The principal food of the Solpugae, according to 

 Mr Marshall, are termites, " a small species which makes no mound, 

 but builds mud tunnels along the surface of the ground among dead 

 leaves, sticks, etc. When the Solpuga comes across such tunnelling 

 it examines along it carefully, then suddenly breaks through the 

 mud and extracts a termite, the presence of which it detects, I 

 suppose, by either hearing or touch." 



The evidence as to the poisonous nature of these animals varies. 

 A Kaffir boy declared them very poisonous, sometimes fatally so, 

 and a bite supposed to be from S. darlingii did not subside till the 

 fourth day ; on the other hand, Mr J. M. Hutchinson of Estcourt, 

 Natal, finds the bite of & hustilis " to be quite harmless, the forceps 

 being unable to pierce the tenderest skin." 



The British Pleistocene Mollusca 



In 1890 a valuable summary of the Pleistocene (non-marine) 

 mollusca of the London district was published in the Proceedings of 

 the Geologists' Association by Mr B. B. Woodward. This paper treated 

 the material from a geographical point of view, describing the geology 

 of the localities where the shells were found, and concluded with a 

 valuable table of distribution, in which were distinguished the living 

 and extinct species. It was hoped that Mr Woodward would extend 

 his researches into other districts, and we have now to welcome a 

 second paper by Mr A. S. Kennard and himself, to which Mr W. M. 

 Webb has contributed, on the Post-Pliocene (non-marine) mollusca 

 of Essex (Essex Naturalist, x., pp. 87-109). This paper is treated 



