12 
Annals of the Transvaal Museum 
however, in the hairs of the two Scopulae: those of Stasimopus are 
simple, but truncated or more or less trumpet-shaped at the tips where 
the protoplasmic core comes into close contact with the exterior: those 
of Solpuga are well feathered, and the tips finely pointed. If the receptive 
portion of an olfactory organ must necessarily permit of direct contact 
between living protoplasm and odoriferous particles, it does not seem 
probable that the scopula of Solpuga can subserve an olfactory function. 
Perhaps the truncated bristles such as occur commonly on the palps 
almost throughout the Solifugae will prove to be olfactory. Although 
I have not specially searched for sensory organs I may add that organs, 
apparently of sensory function, have been found by H. J. Hansen 1 and 
by H. M. Bernard and were identified as Lyriform organs. In the 
Solifugae they are almost confined to the chelicerae. In addition, there 
are what seem to be sensory organs near to the cutting edges of the jaws : 
over the surface of the fang and on the outer side of the jaw near to the 
row of teeth the thick chitin is pierced by numerous very long canals, 
each opening by a small pore on the surface. Similar organs occur in 
great numbers on the legs of various spiders, along with the several more 
complicated structures to which the term " lyriform” was originally 
applied. 
NOTES ON SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
The characters employed in the discrimination of species are 
primarily those peculiar to the adult male. Although various authors 
have also attempted to distinguish species on female characters, and 
have drawn up keys to the species of Solpuga based mainly on such 
characters as are afforded by measurements and colour, yet with the 
larger amount of material now available it seems to me quite impossible 
in many cases to distinguish between the females of closely allied species. 
They are often much more generalised than the males. This is markedly 
the case in respect to the dentition, which is highly variable amongst the 
males of different species and genera, but is essentially identical through- 
out the females of many species of Solpuga and even of widely different 
genera such as Zeriassa, Blossia and Daesia. This type of dentition, 
found both in males and females of Solpuga Venator or of S. lethalis, is 
without doubt primitive. 
On the dental characters, the females of the genus Solpuga can be 
divided into several groups, the largest including all those species ex- 
hibiting the primitive type of dentition; one small aberrant group 
includes S. lineata and allies, which have a much modified dentition in 
the upper jaw of both sexes, and might with some propriety be assigned 
the rank of a distinct genus: the two species picta and schnitzel, only 
known from female specimens, constitute a third group; another little 
group is that of 5. hastata and allies, and lastly the species 5. fusca 
differs from all others in the genus in the character of two or three inter- 
mediate teeth, instead of one only, in the lower jaw. On the other 
characters found in females, it is possible to divide the genus a little 
1 “Organs and characters in different Orders of Arachnids.” Ent. Med. u. a. Ent. 
For. Fr. Meinert, 1893, p. 178, Kjobenhavn. 
