Take a look at the little beauty that turned up in our trap this evening! Itâs a solifuge, otherwise known as a camel spider.
Camel spiders first came to the fore of the worldâs media during the Gulf War when US soldiers starting taking photos of them, and their infamy grew during the subsequent US-Iraqi conflict. During this time some pretty fantastic myths about them were banded about by ill-informed TV hosts, and now these seem to have stuck.
The best of those that Iâve read is that they can reach a foot long, and chase after camels (and people) at speeds of up to 30mph whilst screaming like a banshee. Once they catch up with their quarry they then leap a meter off the ground in order to latch on and lay their eggs in the stomachs of the rather unlucky animal. An interesting idea, but this ainât the film Alien and Iâm not Sigourney Weaver. I still think the truth is pretty incredible though:
Whilst they may be fast, a more likely top speed is about 10mph - and donât get me wrong, this does elicit a certain frisson of creepy terror when itâs coming right at you, but they canât outrun a car doing the school run.
Do they chase after camels and people? Well I guess thereâs no smoke without fire, and it may be that they have been known to do this - but these are nocturnal animals, so when a camel comes along and knocks over a stone that one of these is hiding under, what itâs actually chasing after in the hot desert sun is the shade the passing camel offers.
Regarding the scream, some species can create an audible stridulation, much like crickets do - but a banshee, no.
They canât jump (although I can testify that they can climb up sheet glass using just their two front legs, which is equally impressive), and as for laying eggs in people, theyâre not venomous and will only bite us in self-defence - and even that wonât do much more than smart a bit and draw blood.
All this said, they are incredible animals. Theyâre not spiders, but are arachnids so belong to the same group as spiders and scorpions. Theyâre found most commonly in Middle Eastern deserts but also in Southern Africa and the Southern states of the U.S. and Mexico. They can grown up to 6 inches long and can have jaws that make up to a third of their body length, which are used to chop and saw the bodies of their victims to pulp so they can be eaten.
One thing that everyone seems to agree on however is that they are freakishly creepy. On this I would like to disagree, especially as I got to observe this one when it was safely in our filming tank. However I admit that I may not have been quite so generous if it had turned and run right at me when we released it back to the desertâŚ
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