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Just Plain Weird Stories
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| The Infamous Photo Mass e-mailed in April 2004 (faked by false perspective; solpugids appear 8-10 times life size). Click image to enlarge |
Myth: "Camel spiders" in Iraq are a foot long, lay eggs under camels' skin, and run 25 miles per hour screaming like a banshee.
Fact: On 4 April 2004 I started getting copies
of a mass e-mail, with the picture at right attached, saying "From someone
stationed in Baghdad ... It'll give you a better idea of what our troops are
dealing with." Now, the maximum body length of a near-eastern solpugid
(non-spider arachnid with no venom whatever) is
5 cm. Those in the picture (around 4 cm long according to a correspondent who knows the sergeant in the photo) appear to be around
40 cm long or 10 times life size, due to false perspective. One suspects the
original version was mailed 3 days earlier, on April 1!
Then, in follow-up messages, the wild claims started to pile up!
They call them camel spiders because they eat the stomachs of camels.
They attach themselves to the under belly of camels and lay eggs under
the skin.
They can traverse desert sand at speeds up to 25 miles per hour, making
screaming noises as they run.
They can jump 4 to 6 feet straight up in the air.
They will chase you down like a hungry lion.
If they bite you, the flesh and muscle fall off, leaving a hole.
They are venomous, and their venom contains a powerful anesthetic that
numbs their victims (thus allowing them to gnaw away at living, immobilized
animals without being noticed). (This builds on a
previous myth that spread during the Gulf War).
Solpugids are fast, but not that fast. The maximum speed cited in scientific
sources is ten miles per hour, and the only accurately measured speeds I could
find were less than 1 mile per hour. Any jumping ability they might have is nothing special.
The species in Iraq were studied in Iraq by British scientists during the 39
years (1919-58) the country was under British control. Their anatomy and physiology
are well known. They positively have no venom, and no way to inject it even
if they did have it! (If they bite and manage to break the skin, the wound is
likely to be infected, and such cases may have started some of the stories.
Any ill effects could be prevented with disinfectant.) They lay their eggs in
the soil, not in camels! They are predatory and do not feed off large animals
like camels or humans. When they run toward someone standing in the hot desert
sun (or toward their camel or into their tent) they are seeking out shade to
hide in. Some species can produce a barely audible stridulation (sounding like
a buzz or hiss). See this
article for National Geographic's take on camel spider myths.
I have received (by e-mail) a lot of abuse for doubting these stories – mainly
from civilians who probably think it's unpatriotic to doubt the word of a soldier.
I have the utmost respect for soldiers but I also know a few, and know that
one of their favorite pastimes is sitting around spinning yarns. And why not?
They deserve all the diversions they can get. But that doesn't oblige me to
believe every tall tale I hear from someone who never, under any circumstances,
can give the name of the person it happened to! If the source is an unnamed
person ("my nephew," "someone who just returned from Iraq,"
"shepherds we spoke to," "a Marine," "an airman,"),
that's not evidence! One person offered to have his brother in Iraq send me
a 30-cm specimen, but backed down when the brother claimed he couldn't get an
export permit. No one has ever explained how they measured speed or jumping
height, and of course no one has ever produced a specimen found eating human
or camel flesh. But urban legends never die – there's always someone who swears
it happened to an unnamed "friend."
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to Spider Myths author, Rod Crawford This page last updated 1 September, 2010 This site best viewed at 800 x 600 using IE 5.0 or above. |