386 



BULLISTIN 83 



shape for all is sufficiently uniform that the accompanying cut of 

 one will serve to identify any kind of "vinegarone." Attention may 

 be directed to the peculiar fact of possessing four pointed jaws, 

 this causing the head to be of very 

 dififerent shape from that of the "Child- 

 of-the-Desert" with which it is fre- 

 quently confused. Its body is some- 

 what hairy, also, while that of the in- 

 sect alluded to is smooth and shiny. 

 Color and nocturnal habits are about 

 the only actual resemblances between 

 the two, this animal being creamy to 

 light brown. The much used, and mis- 

 used, term vinegarone does not rightly 

 belong to this animal, it seems, but to 

 a peculiar scorpion, which will be men- 

 tioned later. pi^ 8.— Solpugid (mata venado). 



'iMicse animals are accounted poi- ^^^° mailed (wrongly) the vine- 



garone. Photograph from life, 



sonous and are held m great dread by natural size, 

 the Mexican population, this fear having been more or less 

 communicated to the white residents also. In spite of having 

 heard personally of two instances in which humans were bitten, 

 with some resulting symptoms which would seem to indicate a 

 poisonous bite, the writer must admit his own skepticism as to 

 their dangerous character. This view is held, first, because exami- 

 nation by competent authorities has failed to disclose the presence 

 of any poison glands in the biting apparatus, and second, because 

 observers submitting voluntarily to being bitten have not suffered 

 any ill effects indicating poison. The bite as such is likely rather 

 severe, as the jaws are large and powerful. Herms reports that in 

 the neighborhood of the Salton Sea, the belief exists that any animal 

 drinking from a watering trough in which one of these happens to 

 be present will die. 



When living specimens can be secured and kept long enough 

 to permit of observations and experiments worth while, the subject 

 may be checked up for one or more of the Arizona species. In the 

 meantime we wish to emphasize the almost certainly harmless na- 

 ture of these animals so far as poison is concerned, and will con- 

 clude with the following quotation from Comstock, which is brief 

 and to the point : 



"The solpugids are commonly believed to be venomous ; but 

 those who have studied them most carefullv do not think tliat this 



