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PEDIPALPI

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 38 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PEDIPALPI , See also:

Arachnida (q.v) related to the See also:spiders, and serving in a measure to See also:bridge over the structural See also:interval between the latter and the scorpions. The appendages of the second pair are large and prehensile, as in scorpions, but are armed with spines, to impale and hold See also:prey. The appendages of the third pair, representing the first pair'of walking legs in spiders and scorpions, are, on the contrary, See also:long, attenuated and many-jointed at the end. Like the antennae of See also:insects, they See also:act as feelers. It is from this structural feature that the See also:term " pedipalpi " has been derived. In the tailless See also:division of the Pedipalpi, sestet • . . Mexican tailed Pedipalp (Mastigoproetus giganteus). namely the Amblypygi of which Phrynus is a commonly cited type, these tactile appendages are exceedingly long and lash-like, whereas in the tailed division, the Uropygi, of which Thelyphonus is best known, the See also:limb is much shorter and less modified. Thelyphonus and its See also:allies, however, have a long tactile caudal flagellum, the homologue of the See also:scorpion's sting; but its exact use is unknown. A third division, the Tartarides, a subordinate See also:group of the Uropygi, contains See also:minute Arachnida differing principally from the typical Uropygi in having the caudal See also:process unjointed and See also:short. Apart from the Tartarides, the Pedipalpi are large or See also:medium-sized Arachnida, nocturnal in habits and spending the See also:day under stones, logs of See also:wood or loosened bark. Some See also:species of the Uropygi (Thelyphonidae) dig burrows; and in the See also:east there is a See also:family of Amblypygi, the Charontidae, of which many of the species live in the recesses of deep caves.

Specimens of another species have been found under stones between See also:

tide marks in the Andaman Islands. The Pedipalpi feed upon insects, and like spiders, are oviparous. The eggs after being laid are carried about by the See also:mother, adhering in a glutinous See also:mass to the underside of the See also:abdomen. Pedipalpi date back to the Carboniferous See also:Period, occurring in deposits of that See also:age both in See also:Europe and See also:North See also:America. More-over, the two See also:main divisions of the See also:order, which were as sharply differentiated then as they are now, have existed practically unchanged from that remote See also:epoch. In spite of the untold ages they have been in existence, the Pedipalpi are more restricted in range than the scorpions. The Uropygi are found only in Central and See also:South America and in south and eastern See also:Asia, from See also:India and south See also:China to the See also:Solomon Islands. The See also:absence of the entire order from See also:Africa is an interesting fact. The See also:distribution of the Amblypygi practically covers that of the Uropygi, but in addition they extend from India through See also:Arabia into tropical and See also:southern Africa. Both See also:groups are unknown in See also:Madagascar, in See also:Australia, with the exception possibly of the extreme north, and in New See also:Zealand. Very little can be said with certainty about the distribution of the See also:Tartar-ides. They have been recorded from the See also:Indian Region, See also:West Africa and sub-tropical America.

(R. I.

End of Article: PEDIPALPI

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