The Sunspider or Wind scorpion which is another name for it, ranges in size from nearly half an inch up to almost two inches.
In comparison to their bodies they have gigantic pincers which are hinged to let them move up and down.
They have a three segmented body, with very distinct sections.
Their arms are sticky, which are used to hold their prey items while they eat them. Only the last pair of legs is used for walking.
The abdomen is rounded and the tail has no stinger of any kind, which makes it different from others of its species. Females lay eggs in a burrow they dig in the sand.
They will lay about fifty eggs at a time and guard them with veracity until they hatch. The small sun spiders are active only at night, while the adults are more active at night but will also hunt and move around in daylight hours.
Windscorpions, or sun spiders are predators, but they have no poison to help them catch their prey. They are very aggressive hunters, stalking and capturing prey in their arms rather than with poison. They eat insects, and some smaller animals such as lizards who are many times larger than the predator.
Sun spiders live independently of each other, and only the females with young will live in a group. They are very often regarded as beneficial because they feed on insects and can keep homes insect free.
Their harmless nature to man further discourages any control.
“Upon seeing these arachnids, a person’s first impression is often, “Anything this ugly MUST be poisonous.” This is the unfortunate reputation that follows the sun spider. The truth is quite different. The sun spider’s appearance is quite fierce, yet they are perfectly harmless to man. Many superstitions are told about these creatures.
In Mexico and the Southwest it is one of two different creatures referred to as nina de la tierra or child-of-the earth. Solpugids live where arid and semi-arid conditions occur. In the United States, they are found from Arizona to West Texas and as far north as North Dakota and adjacent areas of Canada.”
(Quote from nsdu) – Where you can also find out a great deal more about sun spiders.
The wind scorpion is beautiful ,peaple need to understand this.
Just moved to a new home in az on 1.50 acres and had about 5 wind scorpians on my patio..and a scorpian also..I sprayed the wind scorpians and the regular scorpians and regret killing the wind scorp after I read this..should I spray around my home anymore or just hope the wind does its job?? Please respond to my email..I will also return with pics of them if u want…frank_gulko@yahoo.com
It says here that the wind spider lives from Arizona to West Texas, but i see them all the time here in San Diego, California. Is this normal?
“In the United States, they are found from Arizona to West Texas and as far north as North Dakota and adjacent areas of Canada.”
I live in santa paula california and i found one of these in my house 2 days ago. I was not sure what i was looking at and it did not appear to be a normal spider at first so i walked up and put it in a jar……. only after getting a close look at it did my fear of spiders kick in. Me and my roommate but living there for years have never seen anything like it so we hit the internet looking for what it was. Sure enough is a Sunspider. but Santa Paula California is kinda far from Arizona and we havent been through Arizona to possibly have brought it back with us.
THOSE ARE THE CREEPIEST DAMN THINGS I’VE EVER SEEN AND I HATE FINDING THEM IN MY HOUSE. I’D RATHER FIND A FREAKIN’ ANACONDA THAN ONE OF THOSE IN MY LIVING ROOM.
I have heard they do secrete a nerotoxin to numb their pray.
Duuuude these things scared me I hate arachnids or how ever u spell it but there uuuuuuugggggllllllyyyyyy!!!!!!!
We’ve been finding them in our house here in No AZ. They are very freeky looking. Some one told me it was a baby scorpion. But, I was not convinced. When I found this and a couple other articles, I was relieved! I had stepped and squashed a few, but now I will catch & release them. I am pretty sure we have several in the house. While at worked one crawled out of my skirt! Yikes!
You state that they are harmless to man. Last night when I threw trash into my outside trash container one “came at me” with surprising speed and despite backing away from it, it continued to come towards me. Is this “normal” behavior for it?
just found one in washington state
Believe me, these wind scorpions are in California! And they are in the northern region too. I live in the Sacramento area, out in the country and we started seeing these critters after the 1986 flood. We grew up out here and never, ever saw these before. But after the 1986 flooding of the Sacramento region (our property included) we have seen them every year, ever since. So we came to the conclusion the flood waters brought them in from somewhere. We didn’t know what they were at first. We did know they looked like a cross between a potato bug and a scorpion and even laughed at that thought…But I researched them on the UC Davis website and lo and behold, found it! They do like being in the house and appear at night. We only see one at time. Although we are facinated by their speed and agressiveness, we still don’t like them in the house. Because they are known to be great bug eaters, we catch them and throw them outside. We have lots of black widows, ants, ear wigs, etc and we’ll accept any help we can get, to rid us of these other pests. We only see a few during the winter months, but come spring, they become more active and appear all through summer. Anyhow, just thought I’d put my two cents in…nice talking to you all…take care….Colleen from Sacramento
Well, I feel awful. Something big skittering on the couch startled me, and I glimpsed it, but by the time I got up to look for it, I couldn’t find it.
Later on I found the Poor little guy on the kitchen floor, half squashed and crippled, and I didn’t even know I had done it. Possibly the cat did it, or possibly he rode on my clothing and fell off at just the wrong time. It probably rode into the house on my clothes because I was in the yard working.
I counted up ten ‘legs’ and looked its hairy little body (and crushed abdomen), and nasty pincers over. Even mortally injured, it was feisty. I had it rinsed down the garbage disposal and gone before I decided to check what it was. I assumed the fore-legs were over-sized antennae, and so I googled for a spider with large antennae and came up with the pictures of it. First hit.
It was definitely exactly the little dude in the second picture, but a little darker, so these guys are definitely in the Coachella Valley (around Palm Springs), in California, too.
I don’t generally bother the spiders, even the black widows outside, because I LIKE them eating the crickets and other pests. They were all here before me, and I’m content to just let them take care of each other.
I’ll keep an eye out for these guys from now on. They’re ‘cute’ in an OMFG! sort of way.
i live in lemoore ca and i found one of theses in my garage… its not the first one i found around the house .. its the first one i caught and its scary lookin.. and if you dont know where lemoore is its in the central california area…. is it poisonous or what is its purpose
Wow i was really surprised when my husband came across this spider on our wall in the kitchen and at first i said that is really ugly “kill it’ but no my husband told me to look it up and after a few hours on the net and a email a very nice gentlemen told me to google “sun spider” and i found this, very good info to have thank you =)
i live in Coulterville CA. its kinda by Yosemite national park. wh do i find these here?! they shouldnt be here! lol. they creep me the hell out.
I was just bitten by one of these things and let me tell you, it hurts like hell! I managed to shake it off my foot before it really sank it’s fangs in but then it went after my other foot! They are very aggressive and will run after you! I have had it happen more than once. They may not be venemous, but they pack a mean bite and are not afraid of humans so be careful if you ever encounter one.
Eric July 11, 2009
I have heard they do secrete a nerotoxin to numb their pray
some research done in 1978 says that some do have a venom that paralyses prey but the reasearch was discredited, even if they did have venom they lack the ability to inject it into prey, they sometimes bight humans but at most it will become infected… theres allot of negative stuff about them on the internet, most of it is untrue, they are also known as camel spiders
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