These words seem to have identical definitions, but the dictionary doesn't have the usual another word for ... to corroborate this.

Can anyone clarify?

They're not the same thing. Pedipalps are more fanglike and
chelicerae are more leglike. One set is for biting and the other for feeling.

So, tell me, o polycephalic one. Were you just browsing through the dictionary and, upon discovering pedipalps, you said to yourself, "Self?! That looks just like the definition for chelicerae!!"?

Is that what happened?

Basically, Faldage, yes. Only it wasn't the dictionary I was browsing but a website about scorpians.

Thanks for the clarification, Z; however, my infernal dictionary tells me that "chelicerae" are
"usually modified as pincerlike claws" adding: "See chela". I see "chela", and am told, in turn, that chelae are "pincerlike claws". So what, chelicerae are usually claws but chelae are always claws... and pedipalps ("variously specialized as pincers in scorpions, sensory organs in spiders, and locomotory organs in horseshoe crabs") are all of the above but also mostly fang-like?

Which is your dictionary, Hydra??

Oxford Dictionary of English © 2003

Hydra, get you an AHD4

More information from my friend Dean who studied entomology at Cal while I was studying etymology: "Position is the key. Since all arachnids are thought to have come form an organism that had six pairs of appendages, they are viewed to have developed their appendages from that same proto-arachnid. The chelicerae are fangs in spiders but in scorpions, solpugids, and psuedoscorpions they are the mouth parts that macerate the prey. The pedipalps in solpugids and spiders are leg-like sensory organs that test or taste the substrate. Adult, male spiders have the pedipalps modified into a syringe-like intromitant organ. In scorpions and psuedoscorpions the pedipalps are claws. The best way to figure out which is which in a given arachnid is to count the pairs of legs from the posterior. There are four pairs of real legs in almost all arachnids. Then the first pair of appendages anterior to the legs is the pedipalps followed by the chelicerae which are closest to the oral cavity."

[Corrected typo.]

Great! Thank you for the interesting information zmjezhd. That completely nails my question!

Quote:

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scorpians.

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from Scorpio?

(puts claws away...)