Camel Spiders: Amazing Facts and Myths About Camel Spiders

De: Hathai Ross

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

What are Camel Spiders? Are they spiders or scorpions? Many people reasonably assume that the creatures they refer to as camel spiders are indeed spiders. However, others refer to camel spiders as wind scorpions. This begs the question – are they spiders or scorpions? In actual fact, camel spiders are not spiders or scorpions! Instead, the scientific name for camel spiders is Solifugae (plural) or Solifugid (singular). Solifugae, spiders and scorpions are all types of Arachnid. Therefore, they do have very similar characteristics. For example, they all have 8 legs. Similarities have often led to some confusion between the three. The body of a camel spider, or a Solifugid, looks very similar to that of an actual spider. It has 2 main parts; the cephalothorax and the opisthosoma. The former can basically be explained as the head merged with the thorax, whilst the latter is similar to an abdomen. Each section is made of several or many segments. When looking at a camel spider, we can see that it does consist of these 2 sections, with the smaller at the front. Scorpions have an additional third section behind the abdomen; a tail that curves over their bodies with a sting at the end. Solifugae do not have a tail. Camel spiders have a fearsome jaw consisting of 2 pincers positioned at the front of their heads. This is what causes some people to compare and confuse them with scorpions, or even crabs. The scientific name for a camel spider’s pincers is ‘chelicerae’. This is different to spiders, which typically have fangs rather than pincers. Camel spiders also differ from actual spiders because they do not spin webs. So, despite being called both camel spiders and wind scorpions, Solifugae are actually unique. Solifugae are the sixth most diverse form of Arachnid. There are many species of camel spider, over a thousand in fact. Each species can be consigned to one of 12 families. An example of a camel spider family is the Mummuciidae family. There are approximately 18 known species in this family. They exist only in South America, and are especially prevalent in Brazil. Another example is the Galeodidae family which includes 200 species of Solifugae. This family is distinguished from others because members have fine hairs on the lower, claw-like sections of their legs. This family of camel spider is prevalent in North Africa and across Asia. The 10 other camel spider families are Ammotrechidae, Ceromidae, Daesiidae, Eremobatidae, Gylippidae, Hexisopodidae, Karschiidae, Melanoblossidae, Rhagodidae, and Solpugidae. These families each contain numerous sub-families and species. Dividing camel spiders into different families and species allows scientists to classify and identify them easily. Each family has slight variations and different characteristics. For example, some families are curve-faced, whereas others are straight-faced. Families often live in different places as well; we will look at this in more detail in chapter 2. We will not discuss all the species in detail in this book, but it is important to remember that they do exist, and that there are differences between types of camel spiders.