I noticed the other day I talk an awful lot about spiders, snakes, specific fish, and other types of commonly venomous/poisonous and potentially deadly animals.
happy It's kind of my thing.
Anyway! I'll be doing random posts as I think of them in here about spiders and their venom. I might end up doing one for other creatures but spiders are pretty much what I know most about.
To begin with not all arachnids are spiders. This can confuse people because of the word, "arachnophobia" which refers to the irrational fear specifically for spiders and nothing else. Other types of common arachnids are scorpions and ticks.
I'd like to tackle the issue of the "deadliest" and "most dangerous" spiders in the world to start off with. I'm doing this because I can't tell you how many people have told me either Black Widows, Camel Spiders, or Grandaddy Longlegs are the deadliest spiders in the world.
Which neither of them are even on the top 10.
To begin with, Camel Spiders and Grandaddy Longlegs aren't spiders.
*gasp* Oh my gosh, she's stupid! I can't believe she just said something with eight legs isn't a spider! I mean gosh, Camel Spiders are called SPIDERS for crying out loud!
Let's go with Camel Spiders first.
Camel Spiders are feared immensely by American troops in the desert. They honestly should be more worried about the snakes and actual spiders that live out there.
Camel Spiders are not spiders, get that through your thick skull. I imagine they're called spiders possibly because they have massive jaws that look like fangs, multiple legs, and two body sections. However, count their eyes for me.
"One...two..."
Only two eyes.
Count their legs for me now.
"One...two...three...four...FIVE!"
Oh my goodness they have fives legs on both sides adding up to ten instead of eight.
Yeah, not spiders. MOVING ON!
Camel Spiders aka Solifugae are nonvenomous arachnids with powerful, pincer-like jaws they use to crush pray. Solifugae get up to about 4 inches across however the largest on record was 6 inches (that's a big ant). Contrary to common beliefs Solifugae are not big enough, nor strong enough to take dogs, kill adults or even their children, or disembowel camels with a swift move and bite from their jaws. Camel Spiders are however incredibly fast for their size and are difficult to catch. They enjoy sitting under cool rocks or hiding in the shade of a nicely built tent. People often think Camel Spiders are chasing them when the Solifugae is actually chasing their shadow trying to hide from the desert Sun.
Something notable about Solifugae is that they do have a mild neuro-toxic saliva used to break down food, easily mistaken for venom (they don't have fangs, just pretty ugly looking jaws). Soldiers have woken up with small holes and a limpness or dull ache in their limbs. As disturbing as it is, a Camel Spider was most likely munching on their arms/legs while they were asleep. It's fine though, put a bandaid on it and slap your arm around until it wakes up.
Notice, just two itty bitty eyes.
I'm posting this because I know someone is going to mention it trying to completely disregard everything I've said.
This is actually a picture of TWO Solifugae tied together, not one. Also please notice the person's arm on the side of the picture and how the Solifugae measure up to it. Yep, these buggers are a lot smaller than war stories make them out to be.
People often don't believe that Solifugae don't have fangs and that they really are just jaws. As you can see here an aggravated Camel Spider demonstrates its FOUR lateral pincers extending from the top and bottom jaws.