As the evening drew near a couple of nights ago with birds accounted for and the easterly wind picking up as the Glass Mountains were being framed by pastels....
... What... Is... That?
There is some organism running toward us. Yes, running. Now across the bare patches in front of us.
Running.
And not of class Insecta.
However, yes... phylum Arthropoda.
Order Solifugae.
SOFULGID!!
".., also known as camel spiders or windscorpions, are fast-running nocturnal hunters of deserts. While not venomous, they have the largest jaws for their size of any invertebrate,
the better to shred prey of all kinds. Like shrews, they eat constantly to maintain their frenetic metabolism. By the day they hide in burrows or beneath stones, boards, and debris." (Eaton, E.A., and K. Kaufman, 2006.)
Around half the size of the local tarantulas, this organism is large, fast, alert and aware.
Wow! We were blown.
What a planet. What a world.
*Eric R. Eaton and Kenn Kaufman, Field Guide to Insects of North America, Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
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