NOTES ON THE FEEDING BEHAVIOR AND OVIPOSI- 



TION OF A CAPTIVE AMERICAN FALSE SPIDER 



(Eremobates formicaria Koch) 



C. H. TURNER 



Summer High School, St. Louis, Mo. 



INTRODUCTION 



Eremobates formicaria is a false-spider, a member of a peculiar 

 group of Arachnids (Solpugidae), in which there is a ten-jointed 

 abdomen and a segmented thorax, and in which the first pair 

 of legs is modified to serve as feelers, so that each individual 

 seems to have three pairs of legs and two pairs of pedipalpi. 

 These are rare invertebrates and are found only in the warmer 

 parts of the world. In our country they occur only in the 

 southern and western portions. We know almost nothing about 

 the habits of our indigenous forms. During the past quarter 

 of a century no original observations upon the behavior of our 

 American forms have appeared. All that has been published 

 upon their activities prior to that time has been condensed 

 by Putnam (16) in the following quotation: — 



" Regarding the habits of the American Solpugidae comparatively little is 

 known. I have myself collected five individuals of D. pallipes in different parts 

 of Colorado. They were always found, one at a time, in a small cavity in the 

 earth, under a stone or ' buffalo chip.' No other animal life was visible in their 

 vicinity, and they appeared to be quite pugnacious. In my haste to transfer them 

 to alcohol I failed to make any particular observations upon their behavior and 

 mode of life. 



" At the meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, held No- 

 vember 7th, 1871, Prof. Cope stated, on the authority of Dr. Gerhung, that it 

 (pallipes) was common in (Denver) houses, and was an enemy and destroyer of 

 the Cimex lectularius (bed-bug). In captivity it showed a preference for them 

 as food, and crushed them in its short chelae preliminary to sucking their juices. 



" Upon sending me two specimens of D. Californicus, Mr. D. Cleveland wrote 

 that they were found at San Diego, in October, under a board near together in a 

 small, funnel-shaped sand hole, with nothing else near them in the way of life, 

 and that they were belligerent. Rev. Green writes that one morning at Silver 

 City, New Mexico, he found a small Goleodes dead and half buried away on the 

 top of his candle. On another occasion, while lying on his bed one very hot night, 

 a large Galeodes ran across his body and down one of his legs, but escaped before 

 he could capture it. Regarding the Texas species (D. suljurea and C. geniculata), 

 Mr. G. W. Belfrage writes as follows: ' They are true nocturnal species, running 



