# i caught a Camel spider!(IN MALIBU CA!)



## orkimedies (May 15, 2007)

title says it all, i found a camel spider under a piece of wood at the beach while at work today, i caught it and am currently keeping it in a deli container.

it is about the size of a large cricket and true to its name as a windscorpion it moves like lightning. 

i have never heard of them living in malibu and i have been here my whole life.
it is so cool, its jaws are huge.

im thinking it may have hitched a ride with some one from outta town or something.


i am stoked, this little beasty gos straight into my arachnid collection. that makes it my only wild caught animal.


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## cacoseraph (May 15, 2007)

there are actually a number of species native to CA

the largest i have ever seen was ~2" in the body and ~2.5" counting it's massive mouthparts 

CA is actually pretty blessed. especially SoCA. in our state we have 7 species of giant centipede, 40+ mygalomorphae spiders including like ~20 tara species and trapdoors and purswebs(sexy!), latrodectus hesperus, some rare imported non-reclusa lox. spiders, the solis like you see, something like 20-30 assorted species and subspecies of scorpions, awesome desert roaches... seriously... it's worth the freaky cost of living!


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## MysticKigh (May 15, 2007)

Northern California we didn't see so much of that.. but now that we're in New Mexico (but not for too much longer!) we run across all sorts of interesting things. Camel Spiders aka windscorpions aka sunspiders.. whatever you want to call them... are supposed to be rather uncommonly seen here. We've spoken to folks who've lived here there entire lives and seen maybe 1. We've been in our current house for 6 months and seen at least 6 'sunspiders' in that time... wild...


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## Talkenlate04 (May 15, 2007)

Yep they are there in large numbers in the southern parts of the country. Being as they are largly nocturnal you would not see them to much unless you went hunting for them. I used to find them in droves in fields on base at Camp Pendleton. They were always burrowed under small rocks or pieces of wood. And man oh man can they eat! I did read somewhere they can over eat........ not sure if that is true. But watching them saw apart a cricket or anything really is something else.


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## beetleman (May 15, 2007)

very nice find! they are awesome little machines:clap:


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## Drachenjager (May 16, 2007)

UMM is it just me or is this post useless with out pix?


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## Widowman10 (May 16, 2007)

man these things are awesome. haven't found anything that can kill them either...:?  they seem to devour ANYTHING that comes near. i've had them eat a black widow and a hornet before, both waaaay bigger than the sunspider itself. attacks anything that dares to move.  just don't get bit...


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## Vermis (May 16, 2007)

Damn but I want one now.  Keeping my eyes peeled at the BTS show.


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