THE SOLPUGIVJB. 



165 



separates them not only from the Spiders proper, but from all but the last and most problematical 

 order of the Arat-hnida, namely, the constitution of the cephalothorax out of four distinct rings. In 

 point of fact, we may say that a true cephalothorax does not exist in them, but that it is represented 

 hv the head and three thoracic segments. The form, however, is exactly that of a true Spider, while 

 the segmentation agrees rather with that of an insect, and in some respects the animals are nearly 

 allied to the Phalangiida?. 



The head bears a pair of large ocelli, and a pair of enormous chelicerse, greatly inflated towards 

 the base, and terminating in pincers. Both pairs of palpi attain the length and form of legs, so that 

 the animals appear to have live legs on each side, but the apical joints of the palpi have no claws. 

 Behind the head come three distinct thoracic rings, narrower than the head-ring, and each of them 



GALEODES . ARANEOIDES. 



bears a pair of true legs, the coxje of which stand out freely from the sternum, and the apices of their 

 tarsi have each a pair of claws. Behind the thoracic segments follows the abdomen, which is usually 

 of an elongate ovate or pear shape, and composed of ten segments. The surface of the body is more 

 or less hairy, and all the limbs are especially so. The respiration is by trachea;. 



In walking, these singular creatures use only the three pairs of true thoracic legs, the two pairs 

 of leg-like palpi, of which the first is the larger, being carried in front of them, and no doubt acting 

 as feelers. Their sole weapons are the extraordinarily-powerful, pincer-like ehelicerse, of which the 

 lower finger is the movable one ; but these are such formidable organs that not only other insects, but 

 even small vertebrate animals, fall victims to their attacks. Like the chelicene of the true Spiders, 

 they are furnished with poison glands, the secretion from which flows into the wounds that they 

 inflict. 



These redoubtable Spiders, which are all of large or considerable size, are chiefly inhabitants of 

 the warmer parts of both hemispheres, but more numerous in species in the eastern than in the 

 western. They live principally in desert places, where they conceal themselves during the day in 

 crevices, or under stones, or in cavities which they dig out in the ground. India and Persia, the 

 gieat steppes and deserts of Central Asia and Southern Russia, as far north even as Siberia, and the 



