arachnologus:
There’s an interesting story behind the second photo (the one with the sergeant’s sleeve in the foreground) on the page Xploder cites here (I’ve simplified his URL a bit). It started out as part of an infamous hoax email that started turning up just after April Fools Day, 2004. See my page here on this and other “camel spider” hoaxes. A soldier who knows the sergeant in the picture later corresponded with me and pointed out that comparison with standard insignia on the sleeve showed the bodies to be about 4 cm long, not 40 cm as a casual glance might suggest.
The 6th photo on the page is actually stolen from one of my pages. It was taken in Oregon. Solpugids are by no means limited to Iraq!
MoodIndigo’s nephew’s photo, on the other hand, is a true spider, not a solpugid (“camel spider.”) Looks like it’s in the huntsman spider family, but I’ve never seen one so pale before - probably an inhabitant of white dunes. Cool!
I appreciate the link fix AND my ignorance fought! Regardless, the things we had running around when I was there were larger than that. All I know is that when a giant spider runs at ME, I’m gonna take action and make sure it don’t run at anyone else.
