Camel Spider
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A Camel spider is a Solifugid (plural form Solifugae, meaning "fugitive from the sun") is an arachnid belonging to the order Solifugae of the Phylum Arthropoda. The order is also known by the names Solpugida, Solpugides, Solpugae, Galeodea and Cher. Their common names include wind scorpion, death spider and skin-eating spider.
It is considered to be the most poisonous spider of the world, not because of the deadliness of its venom, but due to the massive quantities injected, and has been known to have been the cause of the death of several Scientologists and the near death of Dave Mustaine, leader of top metal band Megadeth and ex-lead guitarist of Metallica. Solifugae differ from true spiders (Arachnidae) by storing their poison in two huge exo-testicles and injecting it using a modified barbed skeletal penis. Females (obviously) cannot kill in this way, but they can inject their own weaker venom via an ovipositor along with their eggs. This causes a breakdown of the tissues of the victim animal which allows the baby spiders to gestate in a bowl of soup formed from the denatured muscles of the hapless victim.
Although less venomous, female Camel Spiders are larger than the males and possess powerful chelicerae they can use to bite through skin. As indicated by their name, Solifugae are mostly nocturnal, and spend their days recovering and eating the live prey they keep in their belly sacks.
[edit] Habits
Solifugae are huge, fast, vicious and venomous. They are fast on land compared to other invertebrates; the fastest can run perhaps 40 miles per hour and there are reports of them leaping 6 feet into the air. Members of this order of Arthropoda have deadly venom and spin poisonous webs. In the Middle East, mainly Iraq but who knows in the future? American soldiers stationed there found that Solifugae will feed on living human flesh. The creature will inject some anesthetizing venom into the exposed skin of its sleeping victim, then feed voraciously, leaving the victim to awaken with a gaping wound.
In the absence of invading mass-murderers Camel spiders feed, as their popular name would suggest, on the omnispresent camels. While smaller camels can be caught in the Solifugae's poisonous web traps and consumed piecemeal this technique is just not feasible for a 10 inch spider against a 3 ton mammal such as a grown camel. The camel spider then resorts to stealth. Leaping upwards at the belly of a passing camel the spider quickly chews a hole in the camel's skin leaving a flap which it pulls closed over itself. It can then gorge itself on the camel's entrails and unborn foetuses until the camel becomes too weak and collapses.
Usually at this stage a female Camel spider will give birth to 80 - 100 live young that will feed constantly on the camel's flesh growing as much as 1cm per day. In order to survive in the stifling heat of a putrefying camel in the desert sun, the young breathe through spiracles on the abdomen by expanding and contracting their abdominal muscles. This causes a sibilant hissing sound that can be heard from several metres away and serves as a warning to scavengers that to approach the camel's corpse would lead to almost certain death as the hideous offspring come pouring out of the camel's body cavity and cover the intruder in seconds with biting, chewing, venomous death. The families and colleagues of marines that have died in this horrible fashion are usually told of a mine or bomb attack.
[edit] Attacks on Humans
Although camel spiders do not normally attack humans unless they feel threatened, the presence of people in the spiders' domain has its risks. Solifugae, as has been noted, avoid the sun and will run into any shade from the desert heat. Obviously a tent provides quite a lot of shade, and camel spiders will sometimes congregate in empty tents. When the tent's human occupant returns and finds dozens of giant, venomous arthropods in his tent a natural reaction is to attempt to drive them away, at which point the camel spiders will defend themselves with a tactic known as a death buffet, whereby all of the solifugids will attack simultaneously, stripping a man of his skin in a few minutes.
The other most common cause of accidental attacks has come about due to the fact that US Soldiers stationed in the desert often stand guard duty in the sun. The solifugids see the shadow cast by the guard and move into it. They then cool down by breathing faster, which increases the hissing noise from their spiracles. The sentry hears the noise, sees the spider and starts to move away, causing the "fugitive from the sun" to follow the precious shade. This causes the sentry to run, which causes the spider to run, hissing ever more loudly as its breathing increases. Since the spider can run faster then a man in the desert heat the usual result is that the man falls, triggering the face-leap attack reflex.
