or SOLIFUGA, in natural history, the name given by the Romans to a small venomous insect of the spider-kind, called by the Greeks heliocentros; both words signifying an animal which stings most in the country, and seafors where the sun is most hot. Solinus makes this creature peculiar to Sardinia; but this is contrary to all the accounts given us by the ancients. It is common in Africa and some parts of Europe. Almost all the hot countries produce this venomous little creature. It lies under the sand to seize other insects as they go by; and if it meet with any uncovered part of a man, produces a wound which proves very painful: it is said that the bite is absolutely mortal, but probably this is not true. Solinus writes the word solifuga, and so do many others, erroneously deriving the name from the notion that this animal flies from the sun's rays, and buries itself in the sand.