What Is a camel spider

The camel spider stories began to spread during the 1990-91 Gulf War. Now, with the continued presence of U.S. forces in the Middle East, the stories are becoming legendary. Many of the stories on the internet are completely untrue.

These creatures are (usually) not dangerous to humans. But, dangerous or not, these creatures are horrifying to encounter. I pity anyone who encounters one for the first time.

Most solifuges live in tropical or semitropical regions, where they inhabit warm and arid habitats. Some species however also live in grassland or forest habitats. The most distinctive features of solifuges is their large chelicerae.

Each of the two chelicerae are composed of two articles forming a powerful pincer; each article bears a variable number of teeth. Males in all families but Eremobatidae possess a flagellum on the basal article of the chelicera.

Solifuges also have long pedipalps, which function as sense organs similar to the insects antennae. Pedipalps terminate in eversible adhesive organs.

With the internet becoming so much more widely used during this Iraq conflict, rumors are spreading like wildfire. E-mail chain letters with claims, "he/she said his or her friend—or friend of a friend—knew a soldier stationed in Iraq who had said that these camel spider could inject a sleeping soldier with anesthetic, then chew out a chunk of flesh."
Webmasters with imagination and flare for the absurd take it to the extreme with claims such as, camel spiders are know to eat dogs or cats.

Most people don't know that the camel spider can also be found in the southwest U.S. and Mexico. While the recent buzz is all about the Middle Eastern camel spider, its North American cousin has no shortage of tall tales. In Mexico, they're known as matevenados, which means "deer killers."
The buzz seems to ebb and flow, but before it is over the camel spider will have had is full fifteen minutes and maybe just a little place in history.