![]() ![]() They got their name “camel” spider from a myth. These are broken down into 12 different families. Camel spiders belong to the order Solifugae which has over 1,100 species. They do belong to the arachnid family but are not true spiders. They kind of look like spiders, but are actually not spiders. So what about camel spiders? They are clearly not camels, nor do they look like camels or have any camel-like features. Why do they call them camel spiders?Īnimals are often named by copying other animal names, like the whale shark (a shark the size of a whale that also eats plankton), elephant seals (seals that have a long trunk-like nose), and horse-flies (flies that frequently bite horses for their blood). Let’s find out more about some of the largest camel spiders ever. However, the detail that foils their scary persona is that they are usually only 3 to 6 inches long and here in North America they rarely get larger than an inch! They are also not dangerous to humans (their bites hurt but are not venomous). Their bodies are shaped similar to scorpions which also adds to their frightening reputation. These appendages are called pedipalps and are used to sense prey. They are covered in hair and have eight legs and two appendages that have claw-like endings. ![]() The now-famous false perspective photo of two camel spiders from 2004.īut when considering models for the next giant animal to take over New York, the camel spider is quite intimidating looking! It has a giant jaw with jagged teeth all the way around that they use to chomp and saw through their prey. Word got out and the pictures and stories spread across the internet but a few fact-checkers later the stories were debunked and the soldiers admitted to the hoax. Camel spiders got a bad reputation during the Gulf War when a group of soldiers took misleading pictures of them making them look like giant, killing scorpion-like spiders. ![]()
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