Spiders and Their Near Relatives 



claws are vestigial. It might be said, therefore, that the sol- 

 pugids have two pairs of pedipalps and only three pairs of legs. 

 No other arachnids have two pairs of feelers. It will be re- 

 membered that in the Pedipalpida, where the first pair of legs are 

 developed into feelers, the pedipalps are fitted for crushing the 

 prey. The remaining three pairs of legs are fitted for locomotion, 

 and bear tarsal claws. The trochanters of the last pair of legs 

 consist each of two segments. 



One of the most characteristic features of the solpugids are 

 the racquet-organs, which are borne by the last pair of legs. 

 These are T-shaped or racquet-shaped sense organs (Fig. 38), 

 of which there are five on each hind leg, two on 

 the coxa, two on the trochanter, and one on the 

 femur. They have been described in detail by 

 Bernard ('96). 



The respiratory organs are tracheae. There 

 is a pair of spiracles behind the coxae of the first 

 pair of ambulatory legs; and the second and the 

 third abdominal segments each bear a pair of 

 spiracles on the ventral side; these are covered 

 by opercula. Sometimes the fourth abdominal 

 racquet-organs segment bears a single, median spiracle. 



The opening of the reproductive organs is 

 on the first abdominal segment, and is covered by a pair of 

 opercula, which are regarded as vestiges of abdominal limbs. 



Most solpugids spend the day under stones or other rubbish 

 or in holes in the ground, and come forth at night to seek their 

 prey; but some species are diurnal. They occur chiefly in desert 

 regions, but sometimes they enter houses. They feed on insects, 

 and it is said that they will attack and "devour" small verte- 

 brates such as lizards (Hutton '43). Captain Hutton states 

 distinctly that the Galeodes observed by him consumed an entire 

 lizard except the jaws and part of the skin. Other instances in 

 which solpugids are supposed to have eaten their prey are given 

 by the Rev. J. J. Wood, in his " Natural History Illustrated," and 

 quoted by Murray ('77). Still it is believed that the solpugids 

 take only liquid food, which they suck from the bodies of their 

 victims. (Bernard '96, p. 357.) Professor Cook reports that in 

 southern California they enter hives and capture honey-bees, 

 both workers and drones. 



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