# What is this horrifying bug that just attacked me on my porch?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 9, 2008, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384 "2008-08-09T06:04:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2008, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384/1 "2008-08-09T06:04:03Z")
About an hour ago, at about ten PM, my daughter and I were coming back from faxing a job application for my wife when my daughter suddenly shrieked and ran behind me. I said “What’s wrong?” and she said “LOOK AT THAT HUGE BUG!”
I looked where she was pointing and … whoa. Big ol’ bug. I had her run inside and get a bowl with a screw-on lid and managed to capture it, thinking it might be a big spider or scorpion, but it doesn’t really look like either. It has 8 legs, like a spider or scorpion, but it doesn’t look like a spider to me, and it has no stinging tail and no pinching claws, just a pudgy abdomen and long front legs. I thought “Could this be one of those vinegaroon / whip scorpion things I’ve heard about?” but there isn’t even a whip-like tail.
I got a couple of blurry photos; sadly, they’re the best I can figure out how to do with this camera:
[Photo 1](http://s514.photobucket.com/albums/t342/chorpler/?action=view¤t=bug1_small.jpg)
[Photo 2](http://s514.photobucket.com/albums/t342/chorpler/?action=view¤t=bug2_small.jpg)
The CompactFlash card I put under him gives an idea of the scale. The head looks big, but it’s actually pretty small; the two cone-shaped projections you see at the front of the head are actually two big ol’ serrated jaws, and there are two more underneath so he has a giant (well, for a bug … maybe 7.5mm long?) chomping mouth that looks like it would pinch like hell if he bit your finger. You can see the (blurry) remains of a beetle I put in with him; he attacked it, positioned it between his huge jaws, and crunched through its exoskeleton with no problem, then proceeded to guzzle down the body. Horrifying. I’ve never seen a bug with visible “teeth” before.
So what kind of hideous mutant demon critter is this?
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### Author:  [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2008, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384/2 "2008-08-09T06:10:25Z")
By the way, as you can see from my location field, we live in southern Nevada, in case that helps with the identification. (It helped us determine that it probably wasn’t a weta, for instance, like my daughter thought it might be, since they tend to live more in New Zealand and less in anywhere else. Heh heh …)
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2008, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384/3 "2008-08-09T06:16:20Z")
It’s a [sun spider](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solifugae).
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### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2008, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384/4 "2008-08-09T06:17:42Z")
A [Camel Spider.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solifugae) or sun spider.
> [@](#):
>
> olifugae is an order of Arachnida, containing more than 1,000 described species in about 140 genera. The name derives from Latin, and means those that flee from the sun. The order is also known by the names Solpugida, Solpugides, Solpugae, Galeodea and Mycetophorae. Their common names include camel spider, wind scorpion, sun scorpion and sun spider.
There are a lot of myths about them, but this [site has some facts.](http://www.badspiderbites.com/camel-spider/)
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### Author:  [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2008, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384/5 "2008-08-09T06:25:12Z")
I wondered if that might be it – it reminded me of those trick-of-perspective pictures that were on Snopes a couple years back, showing similar-looking critters caught by soldiers in Iraq that appeared to be as big as a dinner plate and captioned with all that phony information about how they like to burrow into camels’ stomachs and devour them from within. But I didn’t realize they lived here as well! I’ll never be able to leave the house again!
ETA: Ah, [here’s the Snopes page](http://www.snopes.com/photos/bugs/camelspider.asp).
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### Author:  [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2008, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384/6 "2008-08-09T06:32:23Z")
Oh, and many thanks, **Johnny L.A.** and **Maastricht**. I couldn’t even remember what the Snopes creatures were called to search for them, so I really appreciate you guys posting the answer. And you even both included links to Wikipedia! That’s good old-fashioned high-quality GQ courtesy there. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2008, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384/7 "2008-08-09T06:36:54Z")
Aw, shucks! :o
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### Author:  [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2008, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384/8 "2008-08-09T13:12:18Z")
Holy mother of god I’m not going to get _any_ sleep tonight after looking at that picture. Looks like something that was specially made for an Indiana Jones movie.
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2008, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384/9 "2008-08-09T15:29:30Z")
I cannot believe you got your screaming wife to go in and get something to catch it with. 🙂
ETA - oh, sorry, your daughter. I suppose daughters take orders better.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384/10 "2008-08-09T22:06:23Z")
I posted the same question once. Said solpugid was found **in my house**. I’ve also found two house centipedes and one large green regular centipede. The centipedes are much more harmful but the solpugid still creeped me out more. Ah! the joys of living in the desert.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384/11 "2008-08-09T22:28:32Z")
Nice post vs. username there, **tlh**. 🙂
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2008, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384/12 "2008-08-09T23:49:24Z")
Oh yeah. If Lovecraft had been more of an entomologist we might have seen Ry’hinn’hir, the Creeping Devourer of the Living.
The OP is in Vegas. At least up here I can rest assured that they will all freeze to death by winter.
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### Author:  [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2008, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384/13 "2008-08-10T01:46:06Z")
[QUOTE=chorpler]
I got a couple of blurry photos; sadly, they’re the best I can figure out how to do with this camera:
[/QUOTE]
You got a macro setting on your camera? The icon for it may be a flower. It’s for taking close-ups.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2008, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384/14 "2008-08-10T02:50:06Z")
[QUOTE=chorpler]
(It helped us determine that it probably wasn’t a weta, for instance, like my daughter thought it might be, since they tend to live more in New Zealand and less in anywhere else. Heh heh …)
[/QUOTE]
Wetas are in [other countries](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anostostomatidae). The key to recognising a weta is they basically look like giant crickets.
Camel Spiders are kind of a flat shape. Wetas are a springy cricket grasshopper shape.
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2008, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-horrifying-bug-that-just-attacked-me-on-my-porch/459384/15 "2008-08-10T03:19:08Z")
I had a late-night encounter with a [Jerusalem Cricket](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_cricket) last week at a campground bathroom. My first reaction was to shoo it away from the doorway. I know that someone else would have stomped on it and bragged about killing the “ugly” thing.