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Scary Sun Spider

 Scary Sun Spider
type
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 Scary Sun Spider
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 Scary Sun Spider
 Scary Sun Spider
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 This Trope was ROGUE LAUNCHED. Please transfer all edits to this draft.
Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })Solifugids, also known as solifuges (lit. "sun-fleers") or, more colloquially, as camel spiders, sun spiders and wind scorpions, are an order or arachnids related to true spiders and scorpions and chiefly found in deserts and other arid areas. They possess a fearsome reputation in urban legends and popular fiction, where they typically appear as intensely aggressive desert terrors that will attack humans at the slightest provocation. They are often portrayed as highly venomous; traditionally, their bites are described as being either paralytic or outright deadly.
The urban legend originates from encounters with these creatures by soldiers stationed in North Africa and the Middle East in modern conflicts. The soldiers described these creatures as gigantic, capable of running at extreme speeds and aggressive enough to attack humans and camels. Pictures posted by American soldiers duly made their rounds on the internet where, between dramatic posing, the strange appearance of the creatures, their unfamiliarity to most audiences and the grapevine effect, they were swiftly made out to be terrifying monsters.
Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })In real life, however, very little of this holds out. Real solifugids aren't terribly aggressive — they don't usually go after prey larger than big arthropods or smaller mice and lizards. They're also one of the few orders of arachnids to be entirely non-venomous — meaning not that they happen to possess venom that simply isn't strong enough to be more than an irritant to anything larger than a rat, as is the case with most spiders, but that they lack any venom glands or ducts whatsoever. Solifugids rely exclusively on strength and their enlarged, powerful jaws to bring down prey.
It's not impossible to see where this reputation has come from, however. Solifugids are exotic creatures, for one — they're not found in Europe or in most of North America, and for tourists, soldiers and explorers from those areas wild solifugids are thus something of an unknown quantity. Solifugids are also very fast runners and ferocious hunters of their natural prey, and their reliance on biting to subdue their food means that their jaws are proportionally immense compared to a spider's or a scorpion's.
Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_3'); })Compare Spiders Are Scary and Scary Scorpions, for other arachnids portrayed as much more dangerous than they are in real life.
This Trope was ROGUE LAUNCHED. Please transfer all edits to this draft.
Examples
 Scary Sun Spider
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 Scary Sun Spider
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 Scary Sun Spider / int_334120fc
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 8-Bit Theater: Drizz'l temporarily defeats Fighter by putting a camel spider in his hair, listing out a grandiose description of these creatures' danger and aggressiveness and sending Fighter in a screaming panic.
 Scary Sun Spider / int_334120fc
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 8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)
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 Scary Sun Spider / int_68237790
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 Scary Sun Spider / int_68237790
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 Pathfinder: Solifugids, like most other arthropods, are portrayed as highly aggressive animals and in a range in increasingly titanic sizes, including razormouth solifugids that causes grievous wounds in those they bite and duneshaker solifugids larger than giants. The bestiary, however, correctly notes that, in-universe rumors to the contrary, solifugids possess no poison.
 Scary Sun Spider / int_68237790
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 Pathfinder (Tabletop Game)
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 Scary Sun Spider / int_7fd1fd91
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 Scary Sun Spider / int_7fd1fd91
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 King Kong (2005): Moonspiders, a type of large but not unrealistically so sun spiders, are among the various giant invertebrates native to the abyss of Skull Island's central ravine. While the movie and tie-in book depict them as fairly realistic creatures that prey chiefly on small vertebrates and flee from anything bigger than themselves, the Licensed Game portrays them as invincible, swarming enemies that will kill the player in one hit.
 Scary Sun Spider / int_7fd1fd91
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 King Kong (2005)
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 Scary Sun Spider / int_f0841a69
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 Primeval: Episode 1.2 features a swarm of gigantic, highly aggressive solifugids that came through a rift leading to the Carboniferous. They're ostensibly based on fragmentary fossils interpreted as the remains of a giant spider that were later identified as an unrelated aquatic creature, but there's never been evidence that real solifuges ever got that big or that aggressive.
 Scary Sun Spider / int_f0841a69
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 Primeval
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 Scary Sun Spider / int_f64ceaf2
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 Solifugid, a Creepypasta, has a camel spider the size of a camel as its Monster of the Week.
 Scary Sun Spider / int_f64ceaf2
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 Creepypasta
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 Scary Sun Spider / int_f64ceaf2

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