Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: Randog on September 09, 2005, 09:09:58 PM
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For those of you that are a little queasy when it comes to spiders Dont look!!!!!
A buddy from work sent me this, these "little" spiders are called "camel spiders" and apparently live in the Iraqi desert. These two were found in a soldiers sleeping bag!! Apparently they can run 10 mph over the sand and can jump 3ft. horizontally and 6ft. vertically. They are nocturnal and it's believed they jump up to the underside of camels and feed. They also stay in the shade all day and when exposed to sunlight the run toward the shade screeming. (usually your shadow while your running away screeming).
Anyways thought you just might want to have a look ;D Sweet dreams
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v195/Randog/spider.jpg)
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Mmmmmmmmm, sturgeon bait. ;)
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thats nasty
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Have you seen the video where a soldier eats a small one of those.
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Are the GI meals that bad ? ;D
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We Chinese are thinking right now... "So, how do we cook that?" ;)
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Thanks... their 'skin' color doesn't help... almost upchucked :-X
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very weird little creatures thats for sure. would not want to run into one of them while camping thats for sure :o :o
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nasty! :-X :-X :-X
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the camel spider in action.
http://www.big-boys.com/articles/camelspider.html
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i say strir fry
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Camel spiders, also known as wind spiders, wind scorpions, and sun scorpions, are a type of arthropod found (among other places) in the deserts of the Middle East. They're technically not spiders but solifugae (although, like spiders, they belong to the class Arachnida). Camel spiders are the subject of a variety of legendary claims, many of them familiar to Americans because they were spread by U.S. servicemen who served in the Persian Gulf War in 1991, and re-spread at the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003:
* Camel spiders can grow to be as large as dinner plates.
* Camel spiders can traverse desert sand at speeds up to 25 MPH, making screaming noises as they run.
* Camel spiders can jump several feet in the air.
* Camel spiders eat the stomachs of camels and lay their eggs there, hence the name "camel spider." (Legend includes the detail that camel spiders eat camel stomachs from either the outside in or the inside out. In the former case they supposedly jump up from the ground and grab onto camels' bellies from underneath; in the latter case exactly how spiders allegedly as large as dinner plates get into camels' stomachs intact remains unexplained.)
* Camel spiders are venomous, and their venom contains a powerful anesthetic that numbs their victims (thus allowing them to gnaw away at living, immobilized animals without being noticed). U.S. soldiers were said to have been attacked by camel spiders at night but remained completely unaware of their plight until they awakened in the morning to find chunks of their flesh missing.
These claims are all false.
Camel spiders (so named because, like camels, they can be found in sandy desert regions, although they aren't technically spiders) grow to be moderately large (about a 5"-6" leg span), but nowhere near as large as dinner plates; they can move very quickly in comparison to other arthropods (a top speed of maybe 10 MPH), but nothing close 25 MPH; they make no noise; and they capture prey without the use of either venom or anesthetic. Camel spiders rely on speed, stealth, and the (non-venomous) bite of powerful jaws to feed on small prey such as other arthropods (e.g., scorpions, crickets, pillbugs), lizards, and possibly mice or birds. They use only three pairs of legs in running; the frontmost pair (called pedipalpa) is held aloft and used in a similar manner to the antennae of insects. Camel spiders shun the sun and generally hide during the day, coming out at night to do their hunting.
Although the creatures shown in the photograph above appear to be far too big for camel spiders, they look misleadingly large because of their closeness to the camera, which creates an illusion of exaggerated size. (Note their size in comparison to the uniform sleeve which appears in upper right-hand portion of the picture.)
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they look misleadingly large because of their closeness to the camera, which creates an illusion of exaggerated size.
I've noticed that this trick is often applied in fishing photos too... :-X
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Great Report Jack. Still don't want them any near me in any way, They are creepy.
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We Chinese are thinking right now... "So, how do we cook that?" ;)
People do eat spiders... I say those things would make great chili crab (spider) Mmmm. The truth is I'd eat it, its cleaning and cooking it I'm not too keen on :P