1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,560 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey 2 00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:10,000 Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Voge obamb here. Some animals have a 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:13,600 Speaker 1: reputation that's hard to shake. Take the camel spider. Many 4 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:16,120 Speaker 1: Americans are familiar with them, based on photos that came 5 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:18,280 Speaker 1: out of the Iraq War in the early two thousand's, 6 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:21,440 Speaker 1: a giant desert spider with a leg span somewhere between 7 00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:23,279 Speaker 1: the size of a pack of cigarettes and a full 8 00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:26,119 Speaker 1: grown man's calf, though the latter one turned out to 9 00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:29,560 Speaker 1: be a trick of forced perspective. There were rumors they 10 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:32,000 Speaker 1: ran through the desert, screaming and jumping on camels, that 11 00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:34,400 Speaker 1: they would hide an ambush and sleeping bags ready to 12 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:38,239 Speaker 1: inject you with venom. But u S military personnel are 13 00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:40,680 Speaker 1: not the first to tell stories about the camel spider. 14 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:44,640 Speaker 1: In South Africa, they're sometimes called beard trimmers because some 15 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:46,880 Speaker 1: people believe that if you sleep on the ground, camel 16 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:49,000 Speaker 1: spiders will come trim your hair in your sleep and 17 00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:51,640 Speaker 1: use it to line their nests. In parts of North Africa. 18 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:53,720 Speaker 1: In the Middle East, legend has it that they chew 19 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:56,120 Speaker 1: at the bellies of camels until their intestines fall out 20 00:00:56,320 --> 00:00:58,240 Speaker 1: so they can eat them, or that they can lay 21 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:01,280 Speaker 1: their eggs in their stomachs. None of this is true, 22 00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:04,600 Speaker 1: of course, for starters. Camel spiders are not spiders at all, 23 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:07,640 Speaker 1: but sol a few kids. These arachnids live on every 24 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:11,080 Speaker 1: continent except Antarctica and Australia, and all one thousand, one 25 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:15,919 Speaker 1: fifty species have eight legs and two body sections like spiders, scorpions, ticks, 26 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:18,160 Speaker 1: and mites, but they're different enough to belong to their 27 00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:22,600 Speaker 1: own order. Secondly, they are aggressive, but they're also non venomous, 28 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:25,360 Speaker 1: and the large jaws of most species can't even break 29 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:28,639 Speaker 1: through human skin, much less at camel's belly. The largest 30 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:30,800 Speaker 1: camel spider has a leg span of around six to 31 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:34,199 Speaker 1: eight inches that's fifteen to twenty centimeters, which is big 32 00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:37,080 Speaker 1: for a spider, but it's not horror movie territory, and 33 00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:39,480 Speaker 1: they seem to take little to no observable interest in 34 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:43,399 Speaker 1: human hair. We spoke with Christie Reddick, founder of The 35 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:46,679 Speaker 1: Bug Chicks, an educational company that uses arthropods to teach 36 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:50,600 Speaker 1: young people about social issues like prejudice, racism, educational potential, 37 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:54,200 Speaker 1: and personal development. She said, the thing about sol a 38 00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:56,040 Speaker 1: few kids is you don't really need to make stuff 39 00:01:56,080 --> 00:01:58,440 Speaker 1: up about them for them to be fascinating. I was 40 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:00,360 Speaker 1: in Kenya when I first saw one, and I went 41 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:01,960 Speaker 1: to catch it, and it ran up the side of 42 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:04,440 Speaker 1: the wall, right up to my eye height. It reared 43 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:07,320 Speaker 1: back and rubbed its jaws together to stridulate. Some people 44 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:10,120 Speaker 1: say they scream, but it's more of a hissing, rasping noise. 45 00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:12,680 Speaker 1: It had such an attitude I just fell in love. 46 00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:15,560 Speaker 1: It would seem difficult to fall in love with an 47 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:17,920 Speaker 1: interractnet with the stage presence of a pro wrestler and 48 00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:20,320 Speaker 1: the body of an animal whose parts were scavenged from 49 00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:23,640 Speaker 1: the invertebrate salvage yard. But such is the allure of 50 00:02:23,720 --> 00:02:27,200 Speaker 1: the camel spider. Reddick said, if you do a rapid 51 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:29,480 Speaker 1: count of what appears to be legs, they look like 52 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:32,200 Speaker 1: they have ten legs, but their first pair are actually 53 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:35,280 Speaker 1: mouth parts called pedipalps. I kind of think of them 54 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:38,359 Speaker 1: as mouth hands. They help facilitate bringing prey into their 55 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:41,160 Speaker 1: big jaws when they run. They use them kind of 56 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:45,080 Speaker 1: like antenna or long legs in the front. They also 57 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:48,080 Speaker 1: have mouth claws called chellisare which are used for a 58 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:50,720 Speaker 1: dizzying variety of purposes, one of which seems to be 59 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:53,919 Speaker 1: transferring packets of sperm from male to female camel spiders. 60 00:02:55,080 --> 00:02:59,280 Speaker 1: Most solifukids are nocturnal, extremely territorial, and top predators in 61 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:02,280 Speaker 1: arid eco systems. They eat other predators in the same 62 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:05,080 Speaker 1: size range as them, or a bit larger. They even 63 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:08,480 Speaker 1: eat each other. They don't have venom. It's unnecessary because 64 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:11,400 Speaker 1: their jaws are so powerful. They can manipulate their food 65 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:13,880 Speaker 1: through their mouths by sawing their prey back and forth 66 00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:16,720 Speaker 1: like an old timey cartoon character eating a cob of corn. 67 00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:20,440 Speaker 1: Sol a few kids are also wildly fast, able to 68 00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:23,079 Speaker 1: reach speeds of about ten miles per hour that's sixteen 69 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:25,399 Speaker 1: kilometers per hour, and seem to be able to run 70 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:27,680 Speaker 1: for as long as you care to chase them. But 71 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:31,400 Speaker 1: with that comes a metabolism that requires nearly constant fueling, 72 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:34,960 Speaker 1: so they eat a lot. But that doesn't necessarily explain 73 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:40,720 Speaker 1: one selifugid behavior, mass ant assassinations. For some reason, camel 74 00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:43,800 Speaker 1: spiders will sometimes go after an ant's nest, just tearing 75 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:46,240 Speaker 1: ants in half left and right until they're surrounded by 76 00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 1: an enormous heap of rended ant carcasses. Some scientists think 77 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:53,080 Speaker 1: maybe they're killing the ants to save them as a 78 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:56,600 Speaker 1: snack for later. But Reddick published a paper in about 79 00:03:56,600 --> 00:03:58,640 Speaker 1: the diet of selifu kids, and she and her co 80 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:02,400 Speaker 1: author found that they don't cularly like eating ants. Another 81 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:04,800 Speaker 1: explanation for this behavior could be that they're trying to 82 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:06,920 Speaker 1: clear out the ant nest in order to find a 83 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:09,640 Speaker 1: nice place to escape the desert sun. But it's really 84 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:12,840 Speaker 1: a mystery as to why they do this. Arettick pointed 85 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:15,480 Speaker 1: out that another possibility, though, is that camel spiders attack 86 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:18,400 Speaker 1: ant nests to get at the larva and pupa inside. 87 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:22,400 Speaker 1: She explained, these don't bite and are super soft, squishy, 88 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:26,400 Speaker 1: little protein and fat bombs. But you can add the 89 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:28,560 Speaker 1: mass murder of ants to the long list of things 90 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:32,240 Speaker 1: scientists don't understand about. Solid few kids. But remember, even 91 00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:35,720 Speaker 1: though they act wild, they can't hurt you, Eretick said, 92 00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:39,159 Speaker 1: just because something is a predator or even defensive or aggressive, 93 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:42,120 Speaker 1: it doesn't make it a bad or mean animal. Sol 94 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:44,599 Speaker 1: a few kids have so much great attitude and they're 95 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:46,960 Speaker 1: soft and fuzzy. When you pet one, it's like petting 96 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:55,400 Speaker 1: a little mouse, a little demon mouse. Today's episode was 97 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:58,240 Speaker 1: written by Jesselyn Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain 98 00:04:58,279 --> 00:05:00,520 Speaker 1: Stuff is a production of I heart Radio's House off Works. 99 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:03,000 Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other creepy Crawley topics, 100 00:05:03,080 --> 00:05:05,520 Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com. And 101 00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:07,760 Speaker 1: for more podcasts for my heart radio, visit the i 102 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:10,440 Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 103 00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:11,240 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.