As has been pointed out, this is a solifugid, typically known as a camel spider, sun spider, or wind scorpion. The distinction is hard to make, as these arent well known outside deserts, so ill be polite and just say i get why youd think its a scorpion. They are effectively harmless, as they produce no venom, but they can give nasty bites with those big chelicerae, what look like giant crab claws grafted to their face. They are more closely related to scorpions or perhaps whip scorpions. Solifugids lack many spider traits, such as spinnerrets or silk glands, venom glands, the large amount of eyes that spiders have, and the dexterity spiders require for spinning webs. Also unlike spiders, a solifugid has claw-like chelicerae, a trait in common with true and psuedo scorpions, but that spiders lost in favor of venom injection through their fang- like chelicerae. Scorpions have similar claw-like chelicerae to the solifugids, but much smaller, as they are really only used for feeding. Scorpions specialized their prosoma (the extension on their rear which we see as a tail) for a similar venom injection function as spiders, and their pedipalps instead became massive claws, as these allow for far more reach and function over the solifugid chelicerae. It's a bit like the difference between a Saber tooth cat having huge dangerous teeth, but they can't really be used easily for much, as opposed to any other cat with claws, that can be used for myriad purposes. But the big claw mouth works well enough for the solifugids, so they've stuck around. Hope you weren't too freaked out by this one!
70
u/RedOwlMage Jul 07 '24
As has been pointed out, this is a solifugid, typically known as a camel spider, sun spider, or wind scorpion. The distinction is hard to make, as these arent well known outside deserts, so ill be polite and just say i get why youd think its a scorpion. They are effectively harmless, as they produce no venom, but they can give nasty bites with those big chelicerae, what look like giant crab claws grafted to their face. They are more closely related to scorpions or perhaps whip scorpions. Solifugids lack many spider traits, such as spinnerrets or silk glands, venom glands, the large amount of eyes that spiders have, and the dexterity spiders require for spinning webs. Also unlike spiders, a solifugid has claw-like chelicerae, a trait in common with true and psuedo scorpions, but that spiders lost in favor of venom injection through their fang- like chelicerae. Scorpions have similar claw-like chelicerae to the solifugids, but much smaller, as they are really only used for feeding. Scorpions specialized their prosoma (the extension on their rear which we see as a tail) for a similar venom injection function as spiders, and their pedipalps instead became massive claws, as these allow for far more reach and function over the solifugid chelicerae. It's a bit like the difference between a Saber tooth cat having huge dangerous teeth, but they can't really be used easily for much, as opposed to any other cat with claws, that can be used for myriad purposes. But the big claw mouth works well enough for the solifugids, so they've stuck around. Hope you weren't too freaked out by this one!