Growing up to 15 centimetres in length and possessing huge jaws strong enough to shear through the small bones of their prey, camel spiders may look fearsome – but they’re among the most misunderstood of all arachnids says Summer Rylander.
What are camel spiders?
Despite their name, camel spiders aren’t actually spiders. They belong to the arachnid order solifugae and possess neither silk-producing organs nor venom. Remarkably, there are more than 1,000 species of solifuges, though the lot is broadly referred to as camel spiders, sun spiders or wind scorpions.
What do camel spiders look like?
Camel spiders have eight legs and two pedipalps – leg-like appendages used to sense and seize prey – and they’re often brown or tan in colour for optimum desert camouflage.
How big are camel spiders?
Camel spiders can reach up to the aforementioned 15 centimetres in size.
Where do camel spiders live?
Solifuges are international. Camel spiders can be found in deserts and arid regions throughout the Middle East, North Africa, India, Mexico and the southwestern United States. They’re present on every continent except Australia and Antarctica.
What do camel spiders eat?
Capable of running at speeds up to 16 kph, camel spiders are skilled nocturnal hunters. Under the cloak of darkness they seek their prey, ready to chase down small rodents, lizards, insects and even small birds. Since camel spiders aren’t venomous, they kill using their powerful jaws, which can be so long as to comprise one-third of their body length.
Are they deadly to humans?
Their bite may be painful, but camel spiders are not a threat to human life due to their lack of venom.
Do camel spiders attack camels?
A long-perpetuated myth alleges that camel spiders will leap up to slice open a camel’s belly and feast upon its innards. Another version claims that camel spiders lay eggs in the skin so that the babies can burrow into the camel’s abdomen and eat it from the inside. Neither tale is true.
Are there camel spiders the size of a man’s leg?
Another untruth purports camel spiders to be of mythical proportions. Even the largest camel spiders aren’t as big as they appear in a widely circulated photo from 2004, which partially shows two US soldiers holding two camel spiders in such a way that they seem to be nearly half the size of a human. This is merely a trick of perspective with the camel spiders’ placement in relation to the camera lens.
What else isn’t true about camel spiders?
Camel spiders do not leap into the air, they cannot reach speeds of 40 kph, they don’t scream and they don’t chase people. What a camel spider might do is seek out shade by following the shadow of a nearby human – but they aren’t out for blood.
