# Is this a vinegaroon?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-vinegaroon/634994
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 17, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-vinegaroon/634994 "2012-09-17T19:00:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-vinegaroon/634994/1 "2012-09-17T19:00:43Z")
[Pic](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_N8RJrcH3Dt0/TD_bgdC708I/AAAAAAAADCo/Ombg6kke5Ro/s1600/IMG_6404.JPG). (It’s a blog, so you may need to c&p the address.)
Back when I was a kid in the '70s, there was one of those critters in my dad’s house in Daggett, CA. He said it was a vinegaroon. But when I search on vinegaroons, most of them have ‘whips’ and this kind doesn’t.
1. Is the thing pictured a vinegaroon?
2. If not ‘technically’ one, do people other than the blogster and my late dad call them that?
3. What specific Solpugid is the one in the picture (scientific and common names)?
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-vinegaroon/634994/2 "2012-09-17T19:11:48Z")
I claim no expertise, but it looks more like a [wind scorpion / sunspider](http://www.itsnature.org/ground/creepy-crawlies-land/sunspiderwind-scorpion/).
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-vinegaroon/634994/3 "2012-09-17T19:25:58Z")
I think **scr4** is right. This is a vinegaroon:
[http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;\_ylt=A0PDoKokeVdQ\_AgADryJzbkF;\_ylu=X3oDMTBlMTQ4cGxyBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1n?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3F\_adv\_prop%3Dimage%26va%3Dvinegaroon%26fr%3Dyfp-t-701%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D1&w=432&h=352&imgurl=betsyrodman.files.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F08%2Fvinegaroon\_samantha.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fbetsyrodman.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F08%2F04%2Fcritters-of-the-new-mexico-desert%2F&size=24.6+KB&name=vinegaroon&p=vinegaroon&oid=482c4e77a73ba82dc6a9fdfea5b53077&fr2=&fr=yfp-t-701&tt=vinegaroon&b=0&ni=200&no=1&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=12emqvbu2&sigb=138mpinqt&sigi=11v8r43k7&.crumb=G.kSrW0OssH](http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=A0PDoKokeVdQ_AgADryJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBlMTQ4cGxyBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1n?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3F_adv_prop%3Dimage%26va%3Dvinegaroon%26fr%3Dyfp-t-701%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D1&w=432&h=352&imgurl=betsyrodman.files.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F08%2Fvinegaroon_samantha.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fbetsyrodman.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F08%2F04%2Fcritters-of-the-new-mexico-desert%2F&size=24.6+KB&name=vinegaroon&p=vinegaroon&oid=482c4e77a73ba82dc6a9fdfea5b53077&fr2=&fr=yfp-t-701&tt=vinegaroon&b=0&ni=200&no=1&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=12emqvbu2&sigb=138mpinqt&sigi=11v8r43k7&.crumb=G.kSrW0OssH)
Note the upward-sticking “tail” and the scorpion-like claws
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### Author:  [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-vinegaroon/634994/4 "2012-09-17T19:42:32Z")
[Its a solfugid.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solifugae) Not sure the exact species, but its in the genus _Eremobates_, I believe.
Otherwise known as a sun spider, camel spider, wind scorpion etc…
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-vinegaroon/634994/5 "2012-09-17T20:12:20Z")
> [@scr4](#):
>
> I claim no expertise, but it looks more like a [wind scorpion / sunspider](http://www.itsnature.org/ground/creepy-crawlies-land/sunspiderwind-scorpion/).
I’d heard of those being called sunspiders. (Just forgot, when I posted.)
What’s confusing is that my dad called a sunspider a vinegaroon, and the guy who wrote the blog called it a vinegaroon. Maybe it’s a regional thing?
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### Author:  [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-vinegaroon/634994/6 "2012-09-17T20:20:40Z")
Ya know, I’m one of the people that are not at all freaked out by spiders, but sun spiders are the spawn of Satan.
How can you look at those mouthparts and not think, “Holy fuck, I repent everything!”
And if you’ve ever seen one in person (I have, on multiple occasions), they are _fast_. A “normal” spider kind of just innocently scurries along the edge of your wall.
Sun spiders run really fucking fast and right across your floor, as though they’re on a mission to kill whomever is least protected in your house.
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### Author:  [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-vinegaroon/634994/7 "2012-09-17T21:18:38Z")
> [@scr4](#):
>
> I claim no expertise, but it looks more like a [wind scorpion / sunspider](http://www.itsnature.org/ground/creepy-crawlies-land/sunspiderwind-scorpion/).
I like how the females (from your link) guard their eggs “with veracity”.
**Truth shall be my children’s shield!**
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### Author:  [@SurveyorAlpha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurveyorAlpha)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-vinegaroon/634994/8 "2012-09-17T21:44:30Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#):
>
> Ya know, I’m one of the people that are not at all freaked out by spiders, but sun spiders are the spawn of Satan.
Interesting. I am one of those people who are freaked out by spiders, but I find solfugids to be absolutely fascinating. This year seems to be a great year for them around here (Northeast Wyoming) as I have had them in my house on multiple occasions, marking the first time I had seen them outside of pictures.
The mouth on them is amazing, and I can see how it would hurt like hell to get munched by one!