The Nature and Habits of Pliny's Solpuga

Abstract

ALTHOUGH of great interest in itself, the note by Prof. Cook, in NATURE for July 14, p. 247, becomes more interesting still when considered in connection with Dufour's observation touching the freedom of the Algerian Solpugas from persecution by the solitary wasps. The importance of the fact he records, moreover, would be considerably increased if the reason why the honey-bees of California permit the intrusion of their hives by these Arachnoids was explained. Such an explanation might perhaps furnish a solution to the hitherto unanswered problem why the wasps let the Solpugas alone.