208 • Indian Arachnoidea. [No. 4, 



Order, SOLIFUGiE. 

 Family, GALEODID^J. 



The animals, forming this division of the Arachnoidea, have the 

 general form of true spiders, the abdomen being distinct from the 

 thorax, it is, however, distinctly annulated and not provided at its 

 end with any kind of spinners ; the palpi are of a somewhat similar 

 form and length, as the feet. The peculiarity of the abdomen and 

 the palpi has caused the separation of this single family of the 

 Galeodid^ into a separate order. The animals are, besides, characterised 

 by the horizontal form of the falces, terminating with an upper fixed 

 and a lower immoveable claw ; they only have two eyes, like the 

 Phalangia, placed on a common tubercle on the thorax ; all of them 

 also appear to have a number of wing-like appendages on the lower 

 side of the anterior portion of the last pair of feet ; the physiological 

 functions of these appendages is however, I believe, still unknown ; 

 they only live in warm climates. 



Koch published a monograph of the family in vol. viii of the " Archiv 

 fur Naturgeschichte" 1842, p. 350. The author suggests a division, 

 according to the number of segments of the tarsi, in Solpnga, Lich- 

 tenstein, Galeodes, Olivier, Aellopus, Koch, Rliax, Hermann and 

 Gluvia, Koch. A few additional species are recorded by Gervais in 

 "Walkenaer's " Apteres," vol iii, p. 90, but very few other species 

 appear to have been described since. The Indian species mostly seem 

 to belong to the genus 



GALEODES, Oliv. 



These have the tarsi of the 2nd and 3rd pair of feet with 2, and 

 those of the 4th with 3 segments. There have been, I think, 

 three species named from India. The most common, said to have 

 been already known to Aristoteles, is the Bengal species Gal. 

 fatalis, Herbst. (Ungefliigelte Jns. p. 32, pi. I, fig. 1), which has the 

 cephalothorax nearly triangular, considerably depressed and channeled 

 in front, the appendages of the fourth feet nearly sessile, and these 

 last more hairy than the others. A second species was named by 

 Gervais, G. brevipes, and is said to be from Nepaul (Walkenaer, 

 Apteres, vol. iii, p. 87). It is stated to have a short and stout body, 

 a thin lamina in front of the head (cephalothorax) which is nearly 



