April 28, 1898] 



NATURE 



619 



three weeks the young showed no sign of movement. They 

 then moulted for the first time and started to crawl about on 

 their own account, little copies in miniature of their mother, 

 who mounted guard at the entrance and resolutely repelled all 

 ', intruders, snapping without hesitation at every object thrust into 

 the burrow. 



Some species of Solpuga are known to be diurnal, and have 

 been met with roaming abroad in the full glare of the tropical 

 sunshine. From this habit they are known to the Spaniards 

 of Santiago as ' ' Ararihas del Sol " (sun-spiders). For the 

 most part, however, they are nocturnal, and in certain localities 

 favourable to their development prove a great nuisance to 

 travellers camping out. Olivier, for example, describes how 

 they would come into his tent in Mesopotamia at night, attracted 

 by the light ; and Mr. Guy Marshall informs me that an ac- 

 quaintance of his, when encamped on the Hartley Hills, 

 Mashonaland, was forced to shift his quarters on account of the 

 invasion of his tent by a number of enormous spiders, evidently, 

 from his description, a large Solpuga, which entered at night 

 when the lamp was burning and rushed about at lightning 

 speed. In such occurrences as these is doubtless to be found 

 the substratum of truth upon which /Elian based his story of 

 the desertion of the tract in ^^ithiopia on account of the Scorpions 

 and Phalangiums. 



Nothing in the way of animal life, provided it be of suitable 

 size, comes amiss as food to the Solpuga, which is strictly car- 

 nivorous in diet. It is true that stories are told of the killing 

 and eating of small vertebrates, like lizards, mice, birds, and 

 bats. Nevertheless the staple article of their diet no doubt 

 \ consists of insects of various kinds, ranging in size from ants to 

 I moths, beetles, or grasshoppers. A species which frequents the 



houses in Denver, Colorado, is said to be of service to mankind 

 on account of its partiality for bed-bugs, a fact of some interest as 

 showing that the strong stench of cyanide of potassium emitted by 

 these parasites is no protection against the attacks of the- Solpuga. 

 Another kind living in Mashonaland, and known as Solpiiga 

 ' sericea — an elegant little species striped black and yellow, with 



I long silky white hairs upon the hind legs, which, when running, 



resembles a tuft of thistle-down blown before the wind — feeds 

 largely upon white ants ; though Mr. Guy Marshall, my in- 

 formant concerning its habits, has noticed that they eat jumping 

 spiders of the family Attidse, as well as small moths and beetles. 

 When searching for food they may be seen running about at a 

 great pace in the hot sunshine, and every now and again stop- 

 ping to rest for a few seconds beneath the shade of a stone or 

 leaf, only to rush off again without the least warning. Often 

 when going at full speed they will stop abruptly and begin hunt- 

 ing and feeling around a small spot, irresistibly calling to mind 

 the behaviour of a dog checked in mid-course by the scent of 

 game. The white-ants they feed upon belong to a species which, 

 instead of making a mound, builds mud tunnels along the 

 surface of the ground amongst dead-leaves and sticks. Upon 

 discovering such tunnelling the Solpuga follows it up, carefully 

 examining it all the way, then suddenly breaks through the 

 mud- wall and extracts a white ant. But whether the proximity 

 of the insect is discovered by hearing or scent is at present 

 unknown. This species is an expert climber, and has been seen 

 to ascend trees to some height above the ground in search of 

 prey. Similar stories are told of the climbing powers of other 

 species from different parts of the world ; and Mr. A. Carter 

 informs me that in Egypt it is no uncommon thing to see a 

 Solpuga (Gaieodes arabs) climbing on to a table to get at the 

 flies. To capture such quick and wary insects the Solpuga 

 adopts the tactics of the hunting-spider ; instead of making a 

 furious dart, as it would if the prey in sight were a beetle, it pro- 

 ceeds to stalk the flies in the most wary fashion, creeping 

 towards them with such slowness and stealth that the movements 

 of the legs are almost imperceptible, yet all the while drawing 

 gradually nearer and nearer ; then like a flash of light the 

 intervening space is traversed, and the insect struck down and 

 captured. 



Even in the case of so redoubtable an adversary as a scorpion, 

 there is no hesitation on the part of the Solpuga in advancing to 

 the attack. J. G. Wood tells us how at the outset of one such 

 encounter the Solpuga by good fortune severed at one snap the 

 scorpion's sting, and made short work of him afterwards. Never- 

 theless such an end to the contest is the exception rather than 

 the rule ; for in addition to some evidence on this head supplied 

 by Mr. Trimen, Mr. Carter informs me that he has repeatedly 

 witnessed encounters in Egypt between the common Solpuga 



NO. 1487 VOi.. 57] 



(C arabs) and the sand-scorpion of that country (Buthus 

 quinqtie-striattis) ; but though the two are well matched for 

 size, the scorpions never came off second best, in spite of the 

 incomparable advantage in point of activity enjoyed by their 

 adversaries. 



Striking is the difference in appearance between a Solpuga 

 fasting and a Solpuga full fed. In the former the abdomen 

 shrivels up, the segments shrinking one within another like the 

 several pieces of a half-closed telescope ; in .the latter the 

 expansion is carried to such an extent that the distended 

 abdomen much resembles a short thick sausage, far surpassing in 

 size and weight the rest of the body and limbs. This is brought 

 about by the imbibition of water and of the fluid and semi-fluid 

 tissues of their prey. In support of their water-drinking pro- 

 pensities, the following passage, written by the Soudan war 

 correspondent to the Standard (October 19, 1897), may be 

 cited : " One day in my tent [at Kerma] I heard a rustle like 

 that of a silk dress. A big, ugly, yellow hairy beast, with nippers 

 like a crab, was moving fast as a mouse over the moist ground 

 near the zeer [porous water jar] in the corner of my tent. At 

 last he settled down to suck the water from the sides of the jar." 

 The writer of the passage just quoted had previously spoken 

 of this animal as the " famous abu-shabat, the terror of the 

 Soudan in the way of spiders, as large as your hand and ten 

 times more venomous than a scorpion." 



This question of the poisonous nature of the Solpuga's bite is 

 one that has attracted much attention. There is no doubt, 

 however, that in the strict sense of the word they are not 

 venomous at all. Nevertheless the jaws of the larger species 

 are capable of giving a nasty and painful bite, and it is 

 intelligible that a severe sore of long duration might result 

 from such a wound if the Solpuga had been previously feed- 

 ing upon septic matter, or if the sufferer were at the time 

 addicted to scurvy or were in a weak state of health from any 

 other cause. This, quite apart from other reasons, is sufficient 

 explanation of the fact that the native inhabitants of almost all 

 the countries where these animals are found look upon them 

 with horror and fear on account of their alleged ferocity and 

 venom. The natives of Somaliland, however, seem to be an 

 exception to the general rule, for although the Solpugas are 

 remarkable for size and abundancein that country, the Somalis, 

 writes Mr. Parkinson, do not regard them as noxious, and have 

 no names for things so unimportant. The dwellers in Baku on 

 the Caspian, on the contrary, declare the Falange [^Galeodes 

 araneoides\ to be especially poisonous after emerging from its 

 winter sleep, and, according to Mr. Rowland, believe that to 

 counteract the effects of the poison it is necessary to rub the 

 wound with the carcase of the Solpuga after first steeping it in 

 boiling oil. Perhaps it is needless to explain to those who know 

 the Asiatic that our subjects in Hindostan are firmly convinced- 

 of the deadly nature ot the Jerrymanglum.^ The opinion of 

 these people on such a matter, however, is of no great value, as 

 the following circumstance shows. Mr. H. R. P. Carter, when 

 living at Madras, repeatedly, as he tells me, allowed the 

 Solpuga, in the presence of natives, to bite his arm until the 

 blood ran, without suffering anything worse than a passing pain 

 from th^ wound. But although his experiments proved con- 

 clusively to himself the harmlessness of the bite, they were not 

 sufficient to make the onlookers alter their judgment one whit. 

 In confirmation of Mr. Carter's conclusion it may be added that 

 Mr. J. ffolliott Darling has also had the fortitude to make 

 similar experiments on himself, and has attained similar results, 

 with species that are found in South Africa. 



Of their enemies we know but little. From an observation 

 made by Mr. Distant, who, while in the Transvaal, saw a wag- 

 tail attacking a specimen of Solpuga host His, a small species 

 which is abundant in that country and in Natal, it may be in- 

 ferred that they are eaten by insecti%'orous birds, and probably 

 also by some mammals and reptiles. So, too, may it be sup- 

 posed that the larger kinds of Solpuga destroy the smaller, and 

 that all, both great and small, fall victims to large and medium- 

 sized scorpions, to say nothing of great spiders and carnivorous 

 ground beetles, many of which would certainly be powerful 

 enough to overcome the weaker species. 



It must be remembered, too, that although when fasting their 

 agility is amazing, and their chances of escape correspondingly 

 great, yet when gorged with food, as described above, and 

 practically unable to trail their distended bodies behind them, 



1 This name for the Solpuga in the Tamil language I venture to spell as 

 I have heard it pronounced. 



