Solifugids and Humans
Solifugids have been recognised as distinct taxa from ancient times. The Greeks recognised that they were distinct from spiders; spiders were called ἀράχνη (arachne) while Solifugae were named φαλάγγιον (phalangion). In Aelian's De natura animalium they are mistakenly mentioned, along with scorpions, as responsible for the abandoning of a country in Ethiopia. Anton August Heinrich Lichtenstein theorised in 1797 that the "mice" which plagued the Philistines in the Old Testament were Solifugae. During World War I, troops stationed in Abū Qīr, Egypt would stage fights between captive jerrymanders, as they referred to them, and placed bets on the outcome. Similarly British troops stationed in Libya in World War II would stage fights between Solifugae and scorpions.
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Famous quotes containing the word humans:
“Here we also see: what this divinity lacks is not only a sense of shameand there are also other reasons for conjecturing that in several respects all of the gods could learn from us humans. We humans aremore humane.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900)