haarskeeder – The Gardening Blog

I have had such weird and wonderful bugs coming into my garden lately that I had to do a special post on all the bugs I have met so far. Every time I step onto my back deck, I have to run and get my camera. It is as if they wait for me and pose. Thanks to a lot of our friends, we were able to identify all of them. Here are a few of them, from the most recent visitors ……

A cheeky grasshopper is sitting in one of my sunflowers and chomping away on the petals – yum!

[one_half]Not a bug, but a common visitor and friend[/one_half]

[one_half_last]This female hopper is hanging by 2 claws[/one_half_last]

Voracious fruit beetles all clambering for a taste of the sticky, yummy figs! The annoying Starlings wake us up in the mornings with their squealing as they tear open the figs. They eat some but they just destroy a whole lot of them. These broken figs are what the fruit beetles are devouring!

[one_half]Remember this little guy? Longicorn beetle[/one_half]

[one_half_last]And this strange beauty? The Devil Horse Mantis[/one_half_last]

[one_half]This Rhinoceros beetle I found in the manure, remember?[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Some kind of horned caterpillar…. forget the name![/one_half_last]

[one_half]Colourful little beetle, isn’t he? A Harlequin bug[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Another Harlequin Bug[/one_half_last]

[one_half]En masse the locust can destroy, but this one is ok on his own[/one_half]

[one_half_last]This Haarskeeder is the ugliest insect of the bunch![/one_half_last]

[one_half]Remember this mommy Praying Mantis who left her basket of children at my front door?[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Ladybugs are always welcome in my garden!![/one_half_last]

Well, I hope you enjoyed visiting my Bug-a-boo Zoo. I will keep you updated with any new additions.

Happy gardening xxxxx

Have you ever in your life seen anything so weird as this?? Found this on our outside deck! Had to do some research on this creature – Hannes calls it a haarskeeder!

Members of the order Solifugae, usually referred to as solifuges, solifugids, solpugids or by an assortment of vernacular names (e.g., camel spiders, false spiders, haarskeerders, jagspinnekoppe, jerrymanders, roman spiders, sun spiders, walzenspinnen, wind scorpions), are a diverse and fascinating, yet poorly known, order of specialized, mostly nocturnal, cursorial hunting arachnids notable for their massively powerful two-segmented chelicerae, voracious appetite, and tremendous speed (Punzo, 1998). They constitute the sixth most diverse order of arachnids in number of families, genera, and species (Harvey, 2002). Many solifuges are able to run at extremely fast speeds (53 cm/sec) for short bursts, but like most arachnids, cannot sustain such rapid locomotion for long periods. Solifuges vary from a few millimeters to 10 centimeters in length and look superficially like stout, hairy, fast-running spiders with an extra pair of legs (leg-like, sensory pedipalps, held out in front of the body).

Sunspiders are not really spiders. They are a very important animal group in Namibia, which has the highest diversity of sunspiders in the world, and many peculiar endemic species. According to current theories, Namibia is also the place from where sunspiders evolved. As part of the research project, three scientists from Germany are in Namibia to collect sunspiders for research.

Reference from:- http://www.solpugid.com/Introduction.htm