Camel Spiders and Other Huge Arachnids - Nature Documentary A look at man's fear of spiders starting with the Solifugae, or "Camel Spider"-...
Camel Spiders and Other Huge Arachnids - Nature Documentary A look at man's fear of spiders starting with the Solifugae, or "Camel Spider"--a large desert-dwelling arachnid of Iraq that may have been brought to Texas by American soldiers that served there, and then a trek into the jungles of Venezuela in search of other massive arachnids that some local villagers claim are large enough to eat a small dog. Solifugae is an order of animals in the class Arachnida. They are known variously as camel spiders, wind scorpions, sun spiders or solifuges. The order includes more than 1,000 described species in about 153 genera. The Solifugae is a different order from the true spiders (order Araneae) and the scorpions (order Scorpiones). Much like a spider, the body of a Solifugid has two tagmata: an opisthosoma (abdomen) behind the prosoma (that is, in effect, a combined head and thorax). At the front end, the prosoma bears two chelicerae that, in most species, are conspicuously large. The chelicerae serve as jaws and in many species also are used for stridulation. Unlike scorpions, solifugids do not have a third tagma that forms a "tail". Most species of Solifugae live in dry climates and feed opportunistically on ground-dwelling arthropods and other small animals. The largest species grow to a length of 12--15 cm (5--6 in), including legs. A number of urban legends exaggerate the size and speed of Solifugae, and their potential danger to humans, which is practically nil. Solifugids and humans Solifugids have been recognised as distinct taxa from ancient times. The Greeks recognized that they were distinct from spiders; spiders were called ἀράχνη (arachne) while Solifugae were named φαλάγγιον (phalangion). In Aelian's De natura animalium they are mistakenly mentioned, along with scorpions, as responsible for the abandoning of a country in Ethiopia. Anton August Heinrich Lichtenstein theorised in 1797 that the "mice" which plagued the Philistines in the Old Testament... Less
