Whip Spiders. Their Biology, Morphology and Systematics (Chelicerata: Amblypygi)

Whip spiders or Amblypygi are very fascinating creatures with their size, their long, yet strong legs and heavily armed pedipalps that make these animals look so terrible to some people. Where they occur, many of the local people are afraid of them and consider them to be poisonous and dangerous. However, they are not poisonous, and they are dangerous only to arthropods and small vertebrates such as lizards and frogs, but not to humans. This is a comprehensive work on all that is known on the biology of these fascinating creatures. Whip spiders (Amblypygi) can be large and terrifying animals with strong, raptorial pedipalps and long antenniform first legs that can produce a span of as much as 60 cm. Others are small and scarcely span 5 cm. They all lead a secretive nocturnal life and are extremely dangerous to other arthropods and small vertebrates. In contrast to spiders and scorpions, they are of no commercial, economic or medical importance and they are difficult to study in the fie von Weygoldt, Peter