Is the "windscorpion" in AZ very closely related to the "Camelspider" in Iraq? They look very close.

Question

I was up on a mountain at my brother's house in AZ one night and saw a huge creature that I looked up to be a windscorpion. It looks very like pics of Camelspiders from Iraqi desert. It looks like you crossed a spider and a scorpion and was about 4 or 5 inches, I guess about the width of my palm.

My fiance says that he thinks that insects in the desert are subject to extra solar radiation and it causes strange looking ones, such as they mutate into different forms faster.
Do you think this is so?

Answer 1

The "wind scorpions" in Arizona you saw belong to the same order as the "camel spiders" in the Middle East. Both belong to the order Solfugae. There are two known families of Solfugids in North America as well as Arizona.

As for insects in the desert being "strange looking" due to solar radiation, I think your fiance hasn't a clue. Animals in the desert may appear "strange" or different from animals from more temperate climates because the desert is an extreme environment and requires extreme measures to survive in. The "average" looking animals typically can't handle it. Each "strange" characteristic of desert creatures enables them to survive where others can't.

Also, just look at some of the organisms found at the bottom of the ocean. They don't receive any solar radiation but still look "stranger" than anything found on land.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

They are one and the same. The photos are manipulated to make them larger than they actually are, according to the website "Urban Legends". They are arachnids.