Solpugida: India

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This is an extract from ANIMAL RESOURCES OF INDIA: Protozoa to Mammalia State of the Art. Zoological Survey of India, 1991. By Professor Mohammad Shamim Jairajpuri Director, Zoological Survey of India and his team of devoted scientists. The said book is an enlarged, updated version of The State of Art Report: Zoology Edited by Dr. T. N. Ananthakrishnan, Director, Zoological Survey of India in 1980.

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Solpugida

The Arachnids of the order Solpugida or Solifugae sometimes known as 'false-spiders' or 'Wind-scorpions', are among the most formidable of the terrestrial invertebrates. The solpugida include a moderately large group ofcurious arachnids which are primitive. They are not considered as rare within the region they inhabit. They are commonly nocturnal and hide away during the daytime. The body of solifuge is hairy and divided into two parts, a prosoma or cephalothorax and an opisthosoma or abdomen which are ten segmented and united to one another with a narrow pedicle as in spiders. The chelicerae are extremely well developed forming two powerful pincers with which they prey is killed. Sometimes these cheli'cerae are very long as the entire prosoma and they have possibly the most formidable jaws in the animal world.

The legs of the soli fugae are quite characteristic. The frrst pair of legs is long and rather feeble and is not used for walking but is carried stretched out in front and used as additional tactile organs. The remaining legs are true ambulatory limbs, the fourth pair are the strongest of all and: bear ventrally five funnel-shaped sensory organs called malleoli or racquet organs. Among these five organs two on the coxa, two on the trochanter, and one on the trochantella. Each organ consists of a slender basal piece or stalk, and an expended distal piece-the blade.

Solpugids are nocturnal, exclusively predatory and carnivorous, having an extraordinary voracity. Though they principally are desert forms but they live in forests in India. Some of the species dig holes in the ground, and females at the breeding season live in burrows for the protection of themselves and their youngs. The common food of Solifugae are insects, including hard beetles, they also kill and eat large spiders, scorpions and small lizards. Very little is known about the enemies of Solpugida, but probably they are eaten by insectivorous birds,--small mammals and reptiles.

This group of Arachnida is somehow moderately represented from our country. About a century ago, Pocock (1900) dealt with Solifugae in his 'Fauna of British India (Arachnida)' and attempted to workout the Indian forms of this group including only 15 species distributed in 2 families and under 3 &enera. After Pocock till today, unfortunately there is no attempt to explore this group of animal in our country.