FALSE SPIDERS. 
2 35 
watching the while its every movement, the spider gradually stalks nearer, until 
within reach of a leap; then, with a well-judged spring, launches itself on to its 
prey, and, in spite of vehement struggles, tenaciously retains its hold until the 
victim succumbs to the paralysing effects of the poison. An Australian species 
(Attus volans ) has acquired the power of prolonging its leaps into short flights, 
by elevating flaps of skin which arise from the abdomen. 
The False Spiders, —Order Solifugje. 
The members of this group bear such a strong superficial resemblance to the 
true spiders that they are usually called by that name. The structural distinctions 
between the two orders are, however, so great and so easily ascertainable, that an 
example of the one may be without difficulty distinguished from an example of the 
other. In the first place, the abdomen is composed of ten distinct segments, and 
is not supplied with spinning-glands, while the breathing-organs, which are in the 
form of long tracheal tubes, open upon its second, third, and sometimes on its 
fourth sterna. The cephalothorax is distinctly jointed, its last two segments 
having separate tergal plates, while its front part is covered by a head-shield 
bearing a pair of large eyes near the middle of its front border, and merely traces 
of the lateral eyes at the sides. The mandibles, which form a powerful pair of 
toothed nippers, are articulated to the sides of the head-plate. The appendages of 
the second pair are palpiform and tipped with a sensory organ; but their basal 
segments, like those of the legs, are united together on the lower surface of the 
cephalothorax, which has no sternum. The three posterior pairs of legs are 
tipped with two claws each, but those of the first pair have only a single minute 
claw. On the basal segments of the last pair are certain racket-shaped organs, 
termed malleoli ; and behind those of the second pair open a couple of large stigmata, 
leading into additional breathing-tubes. The mouth is situated at the tip of a 
long horny beak, projecting forwards between the mandibles. The males are 
smaller and lighter than the females, but have more powerful and longer legs and 
palpi. Their mandibles, however, are much weaker, and are furnished above with 
a sensory organ called the flagellum. In both sexes the mandibles are supplied 
on their inner adjacent surface with a set of ridges, which give rise to a grating- 
sound when rubbed together. Both in Europe, Africa, and America, the Solifugce 
closely follow the scorpions in their distribution, ranging in America from the 
Southern States of the Union southwards into Chili, and being found over the whole 
of Africa; none, however, have been recorded from Madagascar. In Europe they 
occur in Spain, Greece, and South Russia, being abundant and of large size in the 
steppes of the latter country. Thence they spread southwards and eastwards over 
the desert countries of South-Western Asia and India; but to the east of this 
point they become gradually scarcer, and although species have been discovered 
in Siam and the Moluccas, the group appears to be unrepresented in Australia and 
New Zealand. No extinct members have been described. 
The order contains but a single family Solpugidce, divisible into several well- 
marked genera, differing from each other in a number of structural characters. 
The largest members of the group belong to the genus Solpuga, confined to South 
