South African Arachnida. 207 



Oeder SOLIFUG^. 



The known South African genera may be determined from the 

 ollowing table : — 



^. Fourth leg with a pair of terminal claws .. .. .. Pam. Solpugid^e. 



a'. First leg without claws. 



a-. Second and third legs with 4, fourth leg with 7 tarsal segments. 



«3. Ocular tubercle with a number of bristles on anterior side ; the 

 metatarsus of the pedipalps without true spines, generally with a 

 number of stout truncated cylinder-bristles below. .Solpuga Licht. 

 b'^. Ocular tubercle with only 2 large bristles in front, behind them 2 

 smaller ones, all forming part of the semicircular series round the 

 medial side of each eye ; metatarsus of pedipalps with true spines 

 below in the <? . . . . . . . . . . . . Zeriassa Poc. 



b". Second and third legs with 1-2, fourth leg with 1-4 tarsal segments. 

 a*. Second and third legs with 2, fourth leg with 4 distinct tarsal 

 segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dassia Karsch. 



fc-*. Second and third legs with unsegmented tarsus. 



a5. Tarsus of fourth leg distinctly 2-jointed, the distal segment 

 shorter than the proximal one and movably articulated 

 to it . . . . . . . . , . . . . . Blossia Sim. 



&5. Tarsus of fourth leg 1-2-jointed, but the distal joint not 

 movably articulated. 



a^. Metatarsus and tibia of pedipalp without true spines below, 

 the metatarsus thickly studded all round with brownish- 

 black, truncated, cylindrical bristles . . Hemiblossia Krpln. 

 6®. Metatarsus and tibia of pedipalp with distinct spines 

 below . . . . . . . . . . Gluviopsis Krpln. 



6'. First leg with a pair of small terminal claws ; tarsus of second to fourth 

 legs 2-jointed . . . . . . . . . . . . Ceroma Karsch. 



J). Fourth leg without claws .. .. .. .. ..Fam. Hexisopodid^. 



a7. Pedipalps without spines . . , . . . . . Hexisopus Karsch, 



6?. Pedipalps with strong spines .. .. .. .. .. Ghelypits, n. g. 



Gen. SOLPUGA Licht.- 



* I have previously called attention to the fact that in some species of this 

 genus, e.g., S. cervina Pure. (Ann. S. A. Mus., v. 1, p. 415) and S. vincta C, L. 

 Koch {ibid., p. 420), the flagellum occupies different positions in dried and in 

 spirit specimens, the distal part of the shaft being bent much further backwards 

 ^or downwards) in the former than in the latter case. J^rom an examination of 

 some living males of S. vincta it appears that the natural position of the 

 recurrent portion of the flagellum when at rest is a nearly horizontal one, 

 parallel to the upper side of the cheliceras. On being placed in spirits the 

 recurrent shaft immediately rises to an angle of about 45°, as drawn in fig. 23 

 {loc. cit., p. 421). 



I should also mention that the specimens doubtfully referred to on p. 401 of 

 the paper quoted above as young of Solpuga have since proved to belong to the 

 genera Blossia or Hemiblossia. 



