Origins: Yes, the photo displayed above does indeed show camel spiders encountered in Iraq, but it is not a fair representation of the creatures in that the angle of the shot makes them appear far larger than they are. Also, the claims made in photo's e-mailed accompaniment about camel spiders being flesh-eating anesthesia-injecting beasts are folklore, not reality. So worry not that those serving in our country's armed forces in Iraq are having to deal with man-eating creepy-crawlies the size of small cats.
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
I hate spiders they creep me out so bad! I dont even like to get close enough to them to kill them, even the little ones, I scream and my husband comes and kills them....yuck :wacko:
