December 23, 2011

See No Evil
While moving a cement building block in the garden today, I was thrilled to find this chap!

"These strange animals with their very long front legs are known as whip-spiders or whip-scorpions. With animals like the romans, scorpions and ticks they belong to the class Arachnida, a group of animals all with eight legs. However, they are not true spiders as they do not produce any silk or venom. Scientifically they are placed in the order Amblypygi and they form a distinct group on their own. Their common name refers to the whiplike movements of their first pair of legs."

You can read more about them at: 

http://www.arc.agric.za/home.asp?PID=1&ToolID=63&ItemID=1776