26 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IIQ 



pharynx arise along the entire length of the epistome (G, did) ; lateral 

 dilators arise anteriorly on the epistome (I, dll), but posteriorly they 

 spread to the epistomo-coxal apodemes. Constrictor fibers attached on 

 the three pharyngeal ridges (D) alternate with the dilator fibers. 



The solpugids are known to be voracious feeders on all kinds of 

 insects, and it is well attested that larger species will attack, kill, 

 and devour small vertebrates. It is recorded by Hutton (1843) that 

 an Indian species of Galeodes 2^- to 2f inches long kills and eats small 

 lizards ; Heymons ( 1901 ) says of Galeodes caspius that this species 

 in captivity will eat small toads and lizards 2 to 3 cm. in length, and 

 that a female in the open was seen feeding on a snake that had been 

 killed by a railway train. The huge chelicerae are able to crush even 

 the hardest beetles. In the case of large prey, Heymons observes, 

 the solpugid first bites a hole in the body, and then tears out the soft 

 inner parts until there is nothing left but the empty body wall. Smaller 

 and weaker insects are directly chewed to a pulp in the chelicerae and 

 the hard parts discarded. The fluid extracted from the prey pre- 

 sumably flows down between the chelicerae to the labrum, where it is 

 filtered through the sieve brushes to keep large particles from reaching 

 the mouth. The food is not known to be subjected to extraoral 

 digestion. 



The solpugids have often been accused of being venomous, but 

 the chelicerae contain no poison glands, and the bite of a solpugid 

 has been shown experimentally to be nonpoisonous, though admittedly 

 the chelicerae might carry infective matter, 



IV. THE PEDIPALPIDA 



The name of this order is derived evidently from the fact that the 

 "first legs" are long, slender, palplike appendages, in some forms so 

 attenuated as to be almost filamentous, and have a sensory function. 

 The so-called pedipalps, on the other hand, are strong prehensile 

 organs and may be chelate. In one of the two principal groups of the 

 pedipalpids, the Amblyphygi, the abdomen is broad and rounded ; in 

 the other, the Uropygi, it is more elongate and bears a caudal flagellum, 

 which is either short (Schizopeltidia), or long and multiarticulate 

 (Holopeltidia). The mouth parts are characteristically different in 

 the two major groups. 



With respect to the feeding organs the Amblyphygi are distinctly 

 more generalized than the Uropygi. In each group the pedipalp 

 coxae are extended forward far beyond the mouth ; in the Uropygi 

 they are united to form a preoral food trough, in the Amblypygi 



