My initial interest in the Solifugae (camel-spiders) stems from an incident that occurred in
the summer of 1986. I was studying the behavioral ecology of spider wasps of the genus Pepsis
and their interactions with their large theraphosid (tarantula) spider hosts in the Chihuahuan
Desert near Big Bend National Park Texas. I was monitoring a particular tarantula burrow one
night when I noticed the resident female crawl up into the burrow entrance. Hoping to take some
photographs of prey capture I placed a cricket near the entrance and waited for the spider to
pounce. Suddenly out of the comer of my eye appeared a large rapidly moving yellowish form
which siezed the cricket and quickly ran off with it until it disappeared beneath a nearby
mesquite bush. So suddenly and quickly had the sequence of events occurred that I found myself
momentarily startled. With the aid of a headlamp I soon located the intruder a solifuge who
was already busy at work macerating the insect with its large chelicerae (jaws). When I
attempted to nudge it with the edge of my forceps it quickly moved to another location beneath
the bush. When I repeated this maneuver the solifuge dropped the cricket and lunged at the
forceps gripping them tightly in its jaws refusing to release them until they were forcefully
pulled away.
