Solifugids Among Us

I had never heard of a solifugid before I brought a couple of dead ones back from Sudan for my bug-collecting friend, Bill. I had a couple of these creatures, which I could tell were arachnids, but I thought they were some kind of spider. Bill set me straight; they are a separate order from both spiders and scorpions.

Later, a Google search for “solifugid” brought me far more information than I really wanted about these strange creatures, called variously “camel spiders,” “wind scorpions,” “sun spiders,” and other local names.

The name, solifugid or solifugae, comes from Latin and means “those that flee from the sun.” We never saw them in the daytime.

There are over a thousand known species of solifugids, generally living in warm, arid conditions and in virtually all desert areas in both eastern and western hemispheres. The unattributed drawing at right, which is easily available on the Internet, is a pretty good likeness of what we had in South Sudan, except that ours were a translucent tan.

I met my first solifugid on my first night in Akot. I was sitting under the lit Baptist Training Center shelter when something went whizzing by my feet. A moment later, it zoomed past me the other way. I still had not gotten a good look, but it appeared pretty fearsome. A little later, I managed to kill one.

Even dead, it was scary. Big, hairy, fast – and with those vicious jaws!

These “speedy spiders,” as I took to calling them, grew to nearly four inches long, and they moved in a blur. If one was in a small room, it would almost bounce off the walls as it ran laps around the perimeter. Knowing that these things were out at night made sleeping on the ground considerably less enticing.

After I returned to the States, it occurred to me that I had actually met a lot of solifugids before – especially in church. The Bible even refers to them. They might not have eight legs, but they certainly flee from the light.

In John 3:19-21, we read: 

And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

I preached on solifugids yesterday.

Not your typical Pentecost Sunday sermon, I’ll grant you.  But when one considers that the Holy Spirit was sent by God to bring the Light of His Presence practically into our lives, and when one considers how few church people really seem interested in “walking in the light, as He is in the light,” [a la 1 John 1:7] one might get the connection.

And another thing – I find that the solifugids among us have vicious jaws, too.