The Biology of Camel-Spiders - Fred Punzo Gebunden

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 com er 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.