#camel spiders

[chimerarachnid]

Just a busy, little furry friend very hard at work.

[razehider]

empty threats don't bother me, but "i hope you find a lifer at half past eight in the evening with no external light source on you" is scary. it can happen. fortunately, this iberian solifuge (Gluvia dorsalis) turned out to be cuter in motion in a shitty blurry high ISO phone video than it would've been in any decent photos i couldn't have taken

(August 9th, 2025)

[memories-of-ancients]

An arachnid that deserves your love

There are many myths about camel spiders, for one they are not spider, rather being an order of arachnids known as solifugae, also they are not camels.

In 2004 a photo taken by US soldiers in Iraq purported to show a huge camel spider that looks like a facehugger from Aliens.

Rather, this was a pair of camel spiders, and forced perspective made them look much larger than they really were. The photo went viral resulting in myths, urban legends, and exaggerations. They were dangerous creatures that were so aggressive that they chase you down and attack you. The are so venomous they can kill large animals, they scream, and they eat camels stomachs (umm, ok)

Truth is they are small little critters and are quite adorable. Where most people see a creepy or scary monster I see a cute and silly looking goober. I mean look at this silly little critter.

Camel spiders, also known as sun spiders or wind scorpions, live in mostly dry and hot desert environments in the Americas, Southern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

So one common myth is that camel spiders will chase and attack you. In reality they are chasing you because they want to share your shade. I mean it's heckin' hot out there, and they just want to cool down.

As for their deadliness, camel spider have no venom, and while their jaws look intimidating they typically don't have the jaw strength or size to do much. Their jaws are for smaller insects, not humans which from their perspective must be like eldritch giants. They can't even puncture human skin.

As for screaming, camel spiders do in fact let out a war cry when they feel threatened and must go on the defensive. Listen to it's sonorous war cry. Frightening! 😱

So to sum up camel spiders are not dangerous and if you have a violent encounter worst thing that will happen is that it will make angey squeeky noises at you and nibble on your toes.

Also they are really cute when they dig their little spider houses.

[ratbugs]

some love for the lovely solifuges !!

galeodes araneoides

Galeodes araneoides from Иловлинский р-н, Волгоградская обл., Россия on June 20, 2013 at 01:36 PM by Arseniy T

chelypus lennoxae (a species of teddybear solifuge 🐻)

Chelypus lennoxae from 50 km North of Loeriesfontein, Northern Cape on November 13, 2020 at 12:00 AM by Alex Rebelo. with Enviro-Insight

galeodes fumigatus

Galeodes fumigatus from Repetek, Turkmenistan on June 3, 2019 at 11:13 PM by James Eaton

eremobates tuberculatus

Eremobates tuberculatus from Spring Valley, CA, USA on May 20, 2023 at 11:00 PM by Toby. Crossing trail in Eriogonum-Artemisia shrubland at

chelypus hirsti

Common Moleroman from Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Botswana on June 6, 2014 at 12:28 PM by Heinrich Human

rhagodorta zorab

Rhagodorta zorab in May 2025 by Kian

hooray for solifuges !!

[this-great-world]

A solifuge, frequently called camel spiders, sun spiders, or wind scorpions

[spid3rs0up]

do u like solifugids ? can u tell me y they r like that ?

I really like them. They're like that because they can't eat solid food and didn't develop venom like spiders and their pedipalps are sensory and don't help them eat like scorpions.

So they just have their chelicerae for liquifying their food, no big arms, no chemicals, no hollow sucking fangs to help. So they have huge chelicerae, they're still claws unlike spider chelicerae so it looks like they have 4 fangs. But most arachnids have claw mouth parts, they're just very small. Scorpions have 2 pairs of claws, the big pedipalp claw arms and the tiny little chelicerae face claws that are harder to see.

So sulfugidae just have to use their giant face claws to knead their prey into a slurpable pulp. Like me when I want to drink and iceblock. They also have huge muscles on their face that are part of the chelicerae like some spiders. This is like the only flaw arachnids have, their eating tube has to go past their giant brain into their second mody segment so they eat slowly. Insects can just munch stuff.

And they have giant pedipalps that look like a 5th pair of legs and hair for sensory purposes since they're almost blind.

I imagine that's what you meant by why are they like that.

[snototter]

A striped feather-legged solifuge (Solpugiba lineata) in Karatu, Tanzania

by erica_onnis

[matter-for-mass]

hey i know google ai overview being wrong is maybe played out at this point but

THIS IS NOT TRUE

I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW NOT TRUE THIS IS

i am in actual tears. they. with their chelicerae they make this cute tiny little raspy noise, it sounds like running your nails along a butterknife or something else serrated or whatever.

it’s very cute but. they don’t SCREAM

they will seek shade and you can find (moderately upsetting and i say that as a spider enjoyer) videos of them crawling around people’s hands following the shade. but they. i cannot emphasize hard enough that they don’t chase people down for shade

and their prey is like. mostly other arthropods but sometimes lizards/rodents. they are not chasing a human person down.

and they do not run at THIRTY FIVE MILES PER HOUR

that is as fast as a COYOTE

their top ever measured speed was like 10mph for a short burst. i’m mostly sure their usual speed is maybe a couple miles per hour. they don’t. they. they’re not breaking school zone laws

anyway camel spiders are a little freaky but they’re also just silly little guys and they will NOT chase you down at 35mph screaming and trying to bask in your shade