galeodid^e. 135 



males and the young females, on the contrary, the right and left 

 halves of this plate remain distinct, and protruding between them, 

 in the middle line, there is a pair of lip-like valves covering the 

 generative aperture. 



Habits. These Arachnida are remarkable for their amazing agility. 

 Though principally desert forms, they are also met with in 

 forests, at least in India. They are nocturnal and strictly car- 

 nivorous. Some of the species at all events dig holes in the 

 ground, and the females at the breeding-season live in burrows for 

 the protection of themselves and their young. The latter are born 

 in the egg-stage. 



Distribution. Spain, Greece, and S. Russia in Europe ; over the 

 whole of Africa and South-western Asia from Turkestan to Arabia 

 and Baluchistan, thence throughout India and into Ceylon ; also 

 in Siam and (?) the Moluccas ; America from the Southern States 

 of the Union to the Andean chain in Chili and the Argentine 

 Eepublic. 



The families and subfamilies represented in the fauna of British 

 India may be diagnosed as follows : — 



a. Tarsus of palp narrow at base and freely articulated 



to tibia ; stalk of claws hairy Galeodidae. 



h. Tarsus of palp broad at base and immovably fused 



to tibia ; stalk of claws not hairy Solpugidae. 



«'. Anal segment small, the aperture extending al- 

 most up to its superior edge Djesiin.^:. 



b l . Anal segment large, the aperture scarcely sur- 

 passing its middle RHAGODiNiE. 



Family GALEODID.E. 



Stigmata upon the 2nd and 3rd abdominal segments opening 

 beneath the posterior edge of the sterna and protected by a pair 

 of transversely elongated fiuely toothed plates, the serruke. 



Tarsus of palp narrowed at the base and movably articulated to 

 the tibia. 



Claivs of legs, in the adult, with several rows of hairs upon the 

 stalk. 



Anal segment small, the aperture extending almost to its upper 

 edge. 



Distribution. Africa north of the Sahara and southwards into 

 Somaliland : South-eastern Europe, Greece and South Russia ; 

 South-western Asia, Turkestan, Asia Minor, Arabia, Persia, 

 Afghanistan and Baluchistan, thence over the whole of AVestern 

 and Southern India. Absent from Ceylon and Burma. 



