Are Camel Spiders Poisonous? – Facts, Diet, Lifespan

Many people might have seen a weird-looking brown spider lurking in deserts or scrublands, well they are camel spiders, and are they poisonous well i believe you will know that in this article.

The camel spider belongs to the family Solpugidae and the class Arachnida.

The creature gets its name from the myth that it eats the insides of a camel’s stomach. That’s not true. But the name has lingered despite the disproved myth, making the name camel spider a bit misleading.

This animal has several other names, including wind scorpion, sun spider, and the Egyptian giant solpugid. Solpugid is the Latin word for “sun spider”.

Camel Spider

A camel spider is tanned and moreless bronze in colour with small hairs on its body.

The fine hairs on a camel spider’s body help insulate it from the desert heat.

A camel spider’s colouring helps it blend in with the dry, hot environment around it. This can help it protect itself from predators.

Although it has eight legs, some people mistakenly think it has ten because camel spiders have two long pedipalps (a second pair of appendages) near their mouth. They use these to find and pull in their prey.

The size of this spider ranges from 3 to 6 inches long. It weighs about two ounces.

The camel spider is one of the largest spiders in the world.

Camel spiders can move quickly in the desert or jungle.

The fastest speed at which they can travel is 10mph, which, while not slow, is only one-fifth faster than that of a rabbit. Next time you get in your car, keep an eye on the speedometer when it gets up to 10mph, it will give you a good idea of how fast this animal moves!

Camel Spider Diet And Predators

These animals are natural predators. Their prey includes lizards, small birds, sandflies, beetles, snakes and termites.

This arachnid can even eat prey that is larger than itself. Like many other creatures, camel spiders eat the prey that is most abundant in their habitat.

Camel spiders sense prey with their pedipalps and grab it with their jaws. They use their own digestive juices to turn the prey into a viscous liquid that they can eat.

The camel spiders also have a few number of predators, Toads, Scorpions, and Bats are the major predators of the camel spiders cause they are basically nocturnal.

A bat can use echolocation to find a camel spider and come down to eat it.

A scorpion can overpower a camel spider and eat it.

There are desert toads that are as big as camel spiders, so they are also able to catch one of these spiders to eat.

One of the main threats to camel spiders is starvation. If they can’t find prey in the desert and don’t have time to accumulate fat, they can starve to death.

Lifespan

A camel spider can live for up to one year.

Interesting Facts

• Some people believe that camel spiders chase people to bite them. This is a myth. Yes, a camel spider can chase a person, but the spider is not chasing them to bite them. What’s more, the spider probably doesn’t know it’s stalking a human. You see, the human casts a long shadow. Camel spiders have been known to follow humans to enjoy the coolness of their shadows in the hot environment in which they live. There is a good chance that a person, upon seeing a camel spider chasing them, will start running, and the spider may decide to speed up to stay in the person’s shadow! Fortunately, most people can outrun this spider – even though it is fast.

• Camel spiders are solitary, except during mating season. They can also be aggressive if they feel threatened, but are rarely seen by humans, as they lead a mostly nocturnal lifestyle.

• They detect their prey through vibration, though they do also use sight, one of the main methods camel spiders use to locate prey is substrate vibrations. Because of this, solifuges sometimes don’t notice potential meals if the insect stops moving. In laboratories, camel spiders have occasionally been convinced to eat dead insects by manually moving them.

• Camel spiders are not poisonous, but their bite is very painful!

Credit:

https://a-z-animals.com/animals/camel-spider/