'Baardskeerder' by cfulton
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Description
Translation - beard shearer or cutter.
Solifugids are curious little creatures which due to their odd appearance have been referred to by different names including red romans, sunspiders, camel spiders, wind scorpions and beard cutters. They belong to the class Arachnida, which also includes spiders, scorpions, whip scorpions, ticks pseudoscorpions and harvestmen.
There 900 known species of solifugids world-wide, of which Southern Africa is richly endowed with 6 families and a total of 240 species. Solifugid comes from Latin and means 'fleeing from the sun' which is an apt description since most are nocturnal although some are diurnal. The larger species tend to be nocturnal while the smaller brightly coloured species are diurnal. They are more abundant in drier regions and range in size from 25mm to 75mm in length.
Although they may look similar to a large spider, they are different in many respects. Solifugids do not have venom or silk glands. They appear to have ten legs, but upon closer inspection the first pair of legs are not legs at all but pedipalps. The pedipalps have a sensory function, aid in feeding and have suckers at their tips to enable them to climb smooth surfaces such as glass. Their head has a very characteristic shape with powerful jaws or chelicerae with which they seize and chew there prey. The greatest threat they pose to humans, however, is their bite in self-defense when one tries to handle them. There is essentially no chance of death directly caused by the bite, but, due to the strong muscles of their chelicerae, they can produce a proportionately large, ragged wound that is prone to infection.
Although they have two large beady, simple eyes their eyesight is poor. Situated on the first two segments of the abdomen are five pairs of special organs called racketorgans that pale in colour and perform a yet unknown function. Organs of taste, smell and hearing are situated on the feet and chelicerae. The feet are characterised by stiff hairs or spines which help them run rapidly over soft sand. The whole animal is covered by long sensory hairs or setae which glisten in the sun.
Solifugids exhibit interesting behaviour patterns. They are called hair cutters because it is said that if a solifugid gets tangled in hair it will cut it's way free. Although this has never been substantiated they do make nests out of animal hair and there have been reports of people and pets loosing small patches of hair due to these animals. When active during the day they avoid the hot patches of ground and run from shadow to shadow even if the shadow is made by a human. When the human moves, the solifugid moves into the shadow. This gives the impression that the animal is chasing the human thus solifugids are commonly called hunting spiders.
This one was running around at night, thankfully a bit slower than it estimated 16 km/h (10 mph) top speed. It never sat still for a moment, so trying to use pop-up flash and focus was not easy, this one about the best I could achieve.
Even though it was at the upper end of 75mm (3in) I was tempted to let it crawl onto my hand...
More info than usual, from various sources. Hope it is interesting.
Clive
Comments (19)
Faemike55
Cool capture and very interesting information
kgb224
Wonderful find and capture Clive.
PSDuck
Super photo! In San Diego County (CA), we had them in our home until I cleared them out. Our cat would "bird-dog" for me, and I'd pick them up with a set of 12" hemostats. (I also picked up scorpions, centepedes and other such poisonous critters) with them. I'd get odd looks when I'd hike with them, but once they were needed...!
blinkings
Mate. I mean this with the utmost respect! BETTER IN YOUR COUNTRY THAN MINE! We have enough creepy crawleeeeees as it is!
Blush
What a weird creature... Unusual for sure...and a fav with me Thanks for the very interesting info I had no idea......now I do... Hope you come see my new one when ya can:) Hugs Susan~
awjay
excellent
jayfar
Great shot and great info Clive.
durleybeachbum
What a wonderful pic of this most interesting creature!
Simpleworks
Nice close up shot .
Rhanagaz
Great capture of this beautiful Arachnid! These group which include spider, harvest men, mites, scorpions and other are a very differentiated group of Arthropods who in spite of the "sister group", Insects, have no antenna but use the first (or first to pair of appendages) to "taste" and smell the surroundings. Interesting, I think, is the competition with the insects, their main prey. The insects (most of them) developed wings and the Arachnid group, called spiders, developed nets!In what could be an arms race! This Solifugids could be called a around walking eating machine! :o)
MrsRatbag
Strange and creepy, I'm glad they aren't here; our wolf spiders are bad enough! Great capture, though!
jmb007
bonne photo
marybelgium
interesting !
moochagoo
I agree with blinking :)))
NightGallery
Wicked capture. Thanks for the info as well. Nice shot.
FutureFantasyDesign
Simuliar to PSDuck, I also lived (*and was born/raised) in San Diego, we had these ugly creatures come into our house all the time! The first time I saw one, my husband was working that nite, and my cat had spotted it... I ran across the street and begged one of the guys living there to come and get it out of the house for me! It was nearly 4 inches long and had brown stripes on a pulpy beige body... the most awful looking thing I have ever seen! The guy called them Potatoe Bugs. Give me a pretty praying mantis or lizard any day over these! UGH!
praep
I saw some of them on youtube - eating and fighting - I'm not afraid of spiders but they send some shivers down my spine when I watch the movies. Great shot but I think they are more beautiful when you use no flash g
flora-crassella
a very interesting spider! GREAT photo!!!!
debbielove
Weird and nasty looking! But I'm sure it isn't! Maybe.. Cool Rob