The camel spider might just be the most misunderstood arachnid on the planet. Also known as a wind scorpion, it's neither a spider nor a scorpion. 

What is a camel spider?

The camel spider is an eight-legged arachnid, but it’s not a true spider. Belonging to the order Solifugae, it sits between spiders and scorpions as a separate group within the arachnids, and despite having a reputation for chasing people, it’s really not that scary.

Camel spider size

Camel spiders went viral during the Iraq war of 2003 as photos showed them hanging from troops’ uniforms stretching to almost half the length of a human. These images were the result of false perspective, as the camel spider only grows to around 5 centimeters (2 inches) in body length.

Considering most household spiders’ body sizes are around a couple of centimeters, that’s pretty big, but they’re not the giant Skull Island-esque organisms they’re made out to be online. One thing that is mega about them is their jaw size, with the largest chelicerae for body size of any of the animals that have these specialized mouthparts. That includes horseshoe crabs, sea spiders, and arachnids, but the camel spider bite isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Camel spider bite

Get on its nerves and a camel spider will have no problem biting you, and it can be painful, but it won’t harm you. Camel spiders have no venom, despite what The Internet might say, so any pain you experience is from bite force alone.

Their diet consists of insects, rodents, lizards, and small birds, and a camel spider kills its prey by liquefying it with digestive fluids. After all, why waste your energy on mastication when you can just slurp up a weevil smoothie? 

How fast can a camel spider run?

While camel spiders can run very fast, they’re nowhere near the rumored 25 miles per hour you’ll see on Reddit. “The maximum speed cited in scientific sources is 10 miles per hour [16 km/h], and the only accurately measured speeds I could find were less than 1 mile per hour [1.6 km/h],” explained Curator of Arachnids at the Burke Museum, Rod Crawford.

Camel spiders are also famous for chasing people, something that if you're not expecting it can understandably be quite alarming. The innocent truth is that they have no interest in you, only the shadow you're casting, as their name Solifugae comes from the Latin for "those that flee from the sun". There are some great videos of camel spiders seeking shade in this way.

Do camel spiders screech?

As for the “screech” of the camel spider? We regret to inform you that no, these arachnids cannot screech. They can, however, make a small sound that is used during aggression displays, called stridulating.

Stridulation is the act of making sound by rubbing together certain body parts and it’s a behavior seen perhaps most famously in crickets. Some of the Solifugae can stridulate using their chelicerae – the paired appendages in front of the mouth – but it creates more of a clicking than a screech.

While the idea of a spider shrieking as it chases you is very funny, the camel spider is a much chiller arachnid than the picture its reputation paints, and humans have little to fear from them. With no venom, what’s the harm in lending a fellow Earth resident a little shade? Being a parasol is way cooler than being an arachnid killer.