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Got this picture from my wife this morning. The email she got claims they are Camel Spiders, and the boys in Iraq are having to deal with these suckers.

I was gonna post the pic, but then just went on Google looking to see if this is real or not. According to the Urban Legends Reference page, the picture may or may not be real. The picture I got is the first one shown on that page. Anyway, sounds like the spiders do exist, just not sure if that is what is depicted in the picture.
Either way, kinda grusome don'tcha think?

The Camel spiders are for real and are quite cool in my book.

Those are the largest ones I have ever seen. They are in the order Arachnida (same as spiders), family Solifugae, and are quite fascinating. They are fast runners (25 mph might be stretching it) and are very aggressive - they will take on anything they can overpower, up to mice and lizards. They are not poisonous (except for 1 Indian species) but you need antibiotics if bitten because of the risk of secondary infections because of their mouthparts being less than sanitary.

We actually have these here in central Washington, but they don't get any bigger than about an inch. In my personal Insect collection, I have an immature Solifugid (what we call them here) I caught on the banks of the Snake River about 25-30 mi from Pullman.

The camel spiders shown in the picture might be from the genus Galeodes and the largest of these can grow up to 6" long, excluding the legs - note the shirt cuff next to them)

:edit
After looking carefully at the picture, these were not the six-inchers that I spoke of. The largest one I recall seeing was on a Animal show about the Namib desert in southern Africa. In the scene, there was a desert cat hunkered down in a sandstorm, and a large solifugid (another Galeodes) toodled over to the cat and hid behind it to escape the wind. Comparing the body sizes, that one was rather fat, and probably measured 4-5" bodywise.

The largest one I had seen personally was over in Worcester ("Wooster") in W. Central South Africa - it had gotten into our cabin and freaked out the other folks there and they had me come sort it out. I wanted to catch it alive, but the democracy prevailed on me to dispatch it...so I did. That critter had a body that was 1.5" long at least (remember, ours up here maxed out overall at 1") and was probably 3" overall.

Some species can make a chittering sound by rubbing their mouthparts together very fast - our own species in the states can.
:end edit

:edit 2
Correction: Class Arachnida, Order Solifugae
:end edit 2

:edit 3
They do not bite off chunks - like all arachnids, they only eat liquid food. What they do is spit up tenderizer as they mash their prey with their "jaws" and suck up the usable bits - their actual mouth is a hollow beak nestled between the jaws..
:end edit 3

As for eating the bellies of camels - I had not heard that one, tho' females are known to snip hair from people and camels when they are ready to lay eggs. They do not have an anaesthetic venom in any case.

Regards,

Bugs

Wow, your forum handle makes much more sense to me now

Very enlightening. From now on, any bug type questions go to bugfreezer.

Send 'em to me, baby!

Notice that the troop is holding the top one with a leatherman tool - this gives me a better indication of size. The leatherman head is 1.25-1.5" long, which puts these camel spiders at approx 3-4" body length.

I wonder if the troops were getting these to fight (a favorite game of desert troops in WWII was to pit "Jerrymanders " (aka camel spiders) against each other, scorpions or other critters - the camel spiders usually won), or if a male was chasing a female (mating involves a lot of chewing in the courtship, weirdly enough) and did not want to let go. If the latter, you can bet that she's in no mood now, having her legs crushed like that.

Did I mention I think these critters rock?

OK, I am bringing this back up for those who are interested. Here are some cool photos from July's National Geographic.

Been there, done that.

Yes they -do- exist in that part of the world. No, they don't generally attack -people- but -will- seek the shade while crossing stretches of open area. If cornered, they will certainly let you know you are intruding, -before- attacking.

And they make a cool (and -very- scary in the dark) scittering noise on pavers (concrete blocks) when they are trying to get out of -your- way.

Thank you, but I'd rather not experience that again.

Kudos for BugFreezer who certainly knows his stuff.

fwiw, one of our guys caught one live, froze it and was trying to find resin locally, in order to preserve it in a cast paperweight. They got to be up to 4 to 5 inches (including legs) where I was.

*shudder*

Friggin creepy!

Risky Business
Photograph by Mark W. Moffett

An amorous male wind scorpion (Galeodes sp.) touches a female, at right, with his pedipalps and jaws, causing her to enter a hypnotic state and cease all movement. She remains in suspended animation throughout the mating process, then returns to normal after the male retreats. For him, romance is fraught with peril. An unresponsive female might well attack, kill, and consume him

Sounds a bit like the Blue Dolphin most Saturday nights.

AsaJay wrote:fwiw, one of our guys caught one live, froze it and was trying to find resin locally, in order to preserve it in a cast paperweight. They got to be up to 4 to 5 inches (including legs) where I was.

Were you in bug country? Where/when?

I DID NOT NEED to know about these a week before I leave for Israel!

mmeowgrl wrote:I DID NOT NEED to know about these a week before I leave for Israel!

Ooo, please bring me home a souvenir!!!!

OK, I'm kidding, but if I were in your shoes, I'd be taking a side trip into the Negev for a night or two.

You going there for biz or fun?

I'm going for fun. Unless I see one of those things, that would not be fun AT ALL!!

bugfreezer wrote:
Were you in bug country? Where/when?

Southwest asian sandbox, summer 2002. Operation Enduring Freedom. I do remember finding a video of one someone had caught, and put under a glass bowl, it looked like. Man was that thing pissed. It was moving it's pincers very erradically, clawing at the sides of the bowl, it was really mad.

Maybe I captured the video to disc somewhere, I'll have to look when I get a chance.