THE OUTDOOR WORLD. 



319 



HOW THE VINEGAROOM AND THE 

 GALEODES KILL THEIB VICTIMS. 



BY R. .MKXGKk, M. O., SAN ANTONIO, 

 TEXAS. 



Lately I had the pleasure of making 

 some nature study on two rare and ven- 



A NEW TEXAS ANT KILLER 

 (GALEODES ARANEOIDES) 



(Natural size.) 



omous insects — a so-called vinegaroon 

 {ThcHphonus caudatus) and a very in- 

 teresting ant-annihilator, the Galeodes 

 arancoidcs (belonging to the family of 

 Solpugids). 



It is interesting to note how these spe- 

 cimens came to my observation. Both 

 were sent to me by friends and both in- 

 sects were alive. The Galeodes was sent 

 to "The San Antonio Daily Express," 

 when it was referred to me for identifi- 

 cation. It is a rare and, I believe, hardly 

 known insect in Texas and other Ameri- 

 can states, and its life history is but little 

 known and therefore the more interesting 

 to give it a little closer attention in The; 

 Guide to Nature. It was sent from a 

 small Texas country town near San An- 

 tonio and was accompanied with the fol- 

 lowing letter : 



"I am sending you under separate co- 

 ver a bug that will eat the big red ants, 

 and I want you to find out what kind of a 



bug it is. I found it in the ants' nest just 

 killing them and eating them about a 

 week ago, and I kept him in a box ever 

 since. I turn him loose once a day in 

 the ants' nest to have his meal." 



I had fully identified the insect and 

 also prepared some photographic views 

 of this ant scavenger with all the "para- 

 phernalia" sent with it in the box men- 

 tioned, consisting entirely of ant rem- 

 nants and some earthly remnants of an 

 ant hole. The animal was still alive, and 

 the first impression it made was the re- 

 semblance to some tarantula spider or a 

 young vinegaroon, but it belongs to a 

 rare class of tropical insects (Solpugids) 

 heretofore unknown in Texas, so far as 

 I am aware. 



These are the observations one author- 

 ity mentions of its life habits : 



"A recent traveler in Palestine relates 

 that when living in tents on the plains of 

 the Jordan, near Jericho, each night, as 

 nearly as possible between 9:30 and 

 10:00 o'clock, several Solpugids entered 

 the tent room, running and racing with 

 great speed over everything — tables, 

 chairs and beds — just like mad creatures 

 but apparently with no definite object, 

 perhaps only attracted by the lights burn- 

 ing in the tent. When disturbed in their 

 diurnal hiding places they showed fight 

 and were extremely pugnacious, but 

 their being venomous is doubtful, 

 though the Arabs seemed to dread them 

 quite as much as they dreaded the scor- 

 pions which were also very numerous 

 under the large stones lying around." 



In viewing the cutting apparatus of our 

 specimen closer it was at once apparent 

 how this ant killer disposes of its victims 

 (remnants of which and the insect it- 

 self are seen on the photograph in about 

 natural size.) 



Its main characteristic anatomy are 

 the head and mouth parts, consisting of 

 a rather small head with two small glit- 

 tering eyes and two very large and pow- 

 erful cutting fangs of which the upper 

 fang of the falx is not movable, but the 

 lower one is movable by the aid of a 

 strong joint, and it serves to grab its vic- 

 tims. This lower movable joint is a reg- 

 ular "saw-machine," being supplied like 

 an ant with several protruding and blunt, 

 serrated teeth at its inner curved margin. 



