Although Camel Spiders are also known as Wind Scorpions or Sun Spiders, they are neither a spider nor a scorpion. They belong to the order Solifugae which is made up of around 900 species of arachnids, which include scorpions. True spiders belong to a different order called Araneae.
Distribution:
Camel Spiders live in tropical and sub-tropical regions, in warm and arid habitats. Some species have been reported to live in grassland or forests.
Anatomical characteristics:
At first glance, one cannot be blamed if one thinks Camel Spiders have ten legs! In actual fact, they have eight legs, as is typical of arachnids. What seems like two very long front legs are actually two sense organs called pedipalps, and are similar to insect’s antennae.
Camel Spiders have very large, powerful pincer claws called chelicerae at their mouth. They use these to kill and cut their prey to pieces, which are liquefied before being ingested. Camel Spiders are usually beige to brown in colour. They have very hairy legs and body, which makes them look like a furry ball when they run.
They usually grow to around 12 cm long. They do not produce venom.
Behavioral characteristics:
Camel Spiders are carnivores and feed on termites and other small insects. However, it has been reported that they can consume larger prey such as lizards. Camel Spiders hunt at night (nocturnal) and seek the shade for most of the day. They will approach any shade in their vicinity, including human shadows, and this gives the impression that they are attacking humans, which of course is not true. Camel Spiders will also sit in waiting in a dead camel’s shade for any live prey which approaches the corpse, hence their name. However, they are not capable of killing camels or any other large mammal, as they have no poison to produce. Nor do Camel Spiders spin any webs.
They sense close prey with their pedipalps, and kill them with their claws.
Camel spiders can actually run quite fast at 10 miles per hour.
Reproduction:
This can occur via a direct or indirect sperm transfer. Indirect transfer requires the male Camel spider to produce a sac filled with sperm, called a spermatophore, onto the ground. He then inserts it with his chelicerae into the female’s genital pore.
