Also 8 Sal-. [L. solpūga (salpūga), also solipūga, solifūga: see SOLIFUGE.]
1. A venomous ant or spider mentioned by classical authors.
1601. Holland, Pliny, VIII. xxix. 212. In Æthyopia … there is a great countrey … dispeopled sometime by Scorpions, and a kind of Pismires called Solpugæ.
1627. May, Lucan, IX. 954 (1631), R ij b.
| Who, small Solpuga, from thy hole would flee? | |
| Yet the three sisters giue their power to thee. |
1718. Rowe, trans. Lucan, IX. 1418/399.
| Or cou’d we the Salpuga’s Anger dread, | |
| Or fear upon her little Cell to tread? |
2. Ent. A genus of tropical or semi-tropical spiders (belonging to the group Solpugidæ or Solifugæ); a weasel-spider.
1815. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., iv. (1818), I. 126. The bite of one of the centipedes … is less tremendous than that of the Solpuga.
1835. Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., II. xvi. 86. It seems, therefore, almost certain that the ancient and modern Solpuga are synonymous.
