Here in the UAE, we get a variety of spider called the Camel Spider...also called the Wind Spider, Wind Scorpion or Sun Spider.
The reality is in fact that it is neither a spider, nor a scorpion as it does not belong to any of those 2 families of animal, but it does in fact belong to its own family of animals called the Solfugae family. There are about 12 sub-species in this family of which one of them are actually found in South Africa...the Red Roman Spider. For those of you that have never come into contact with a spider like these, I guess it is fair to say that they can be as big as an Adult hand, and they DO CHASE YOU. Well, this is not actually very acurate...it feels as if they are chasing you. They have a fear of the sun, so they will run towards you in order to get into you shadow, which for most people is a little too close for comfort. This result in you moving away QUICKLY, and the spider following whatever shade is available...namely your shadow. So as you can see, they are not chasing you so next time you see a HUGE spider running towards you...let him come and just stand still...YEAH RIGHT !!!
I work at the local airport here in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, and being out in a rural desert area, we occassionally get these spiders wandering into our office/hanger. These pictures are of the biggest one that I have seen here. About 4 days prior to this, we caught a slightly smaller one which I took home to show the family. We found a half dead cockroach in the driveway and fed it to the spider, which it gladly accepted. Thorn then said he wanted to use it for the science fair at school and I agreed. Later that day the spider died very suddenly. I guess a half dead cockroach should have been a warning sign. Why would an insect that can withstand a nuclear explosion be half dead in my driveway????? My only guess is that I fed a poisoned cockroach to my son's science project, thereby KILLING my son's science project...what a cool father I am. Anyway, luckily on the morining of the science fair, this new spider came wandering into the hanger and I was once again in Thorn's good books. This time we fed him a very much alive grasshopper, and I was able to get some practice with MACRO photography...
It took about 30 minutes to eat the grasshopper completely. It starts by using it's jaws to 'saw' off the head. The other spider did the same technique with the poison cockroach.
Once the head was off, it is said to inject a substance that liquifies the insides of the prey animal, and it then drinks up the juices...apparently. Once it has finished, it does a really amazing thing. It breakes the legs off and actually SQUEEZES to juicy substances out of the leg, starting at the bottom and working its way to the top. When it gets to the top, it drinks whatever came out...the best way to explain it is...imagine you are eating crab or crayfish legs...pretty much the same way.
I guess it was inevitable. We have kept pretty much every other animal type we have come across, so I guess a spider is not so surprising. I will however not be keeping this 'pet' and it will be released back into the wild after the next meal.All the best and I will keep in touch.
Mike,Luiza and the kids
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