PEDIPALPI. 655 



familiaris of Hentz is a common species throughout the United 

 States. It is pale gray, hairy, and the abdomen is blackish, 

 with a grayish angular band edged with whitish. Hentz says 

 that it is almost domesticated in our houses, and dwells in 

 cracks around sashes, between clapboards, etc., and may be 

 seen on the sunny side of the house, and in the hottest places, 

 wandering in search of prey. It moves with agility and ease, 

 but usually with a certain leaping gait. . . . Before leaping 

 this Attus always fixes a thread on the point from which it 

 departs ; by this it is suspended in the air, if it miss its aim, 

 and it is secure against falling far from its hunting grounds. 

 These spiders, and probably all other species, a day or two 

 before they change their skin, make a tube of white silk, open 

 at both ends ; there they remain motionless till the moulting 

 time arrives, and even some days after are seen there still, 

 probably remaining in a secure place, for the purpose of re- 

 gaining strength and activity." 



PEDIPALPI. 



UNDER the term Pedipalpi we would embrace besides the 

 Pedipalps of Latreille, the Solpugids and Phalangids. They 

 all agree in having the maxillary palpi greatly enlarged and 

 usually ending in a forceps, and the abdomen distinctly 

 jointed, with the end, sometimes, as in the scorpions, pro- 

 longed into a tail. In the retention of the tail in some of the 

 forms, the abnormally enlarged maxillae, the jointed cephalo- 

 thorax and abdomen, which in the scorpions reminds us of the 

 Myriopods, we have characters which place the Pedipalps be- 

 low the true spiders. 



SOLPUGIDS Gervais. In this group, the species of which 

 are large, hairy, spider-like animals, the cephalothorax is 

 clearly jointed, and the abdomen is, elongated ; respiration 

 is carried on by tracheae. Solpuga may at once be known by 

 the enormous, though not very long, maxillary palpi. S. 

 araneoides Pallas inhabits Southern Russia. S. (Galeodes) 

 subulata Say inhabits the Southwestern States. 



