Scaring: Spider the Size of a Puppy Found

Piotr Naskrecki an entomologist and photographer at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, was taking a nighttime walk in a rainforest in Guyana because that’s what he does, and ended up face-to-face with a spider the size of a small puppy (pictured.) Just another day on the job, right?

Known as the South American Goliath birdeater spider (note the “eats birds” part), the colossal arachnid Naskrecki encountered was a particularly large example of the world’s largest spider, with legs that can grow to up to a foot in length, with a central body the size of a large fist. Naskrecki said the spider weighed about as much as a young puppy. Not terrified yet? As it walks, the spider’s feet have hardened tips and claws that produce a very distinct, clicking sound, not unlike that of a horse’s hooves hitting the ground, though maybe not as loud.

But while the appearance of the spider is enough to scare the sweat out of you, its weaponry is even nastier. When it approaches an enemy or prey, the monster spider rubs its hind legs against its abdomen, sending out a cloud of hairs with microscopic barbs on them. When these hairs get in the eyes or other mucous membranes of prey, they are extremely painful and itchy, and can stay there for days, disorienting the target. To further scare its enemies, the hairs on the front of the spider’s body have tiny hooks and barbs that make a hissing sound when they rub against each other, “sort of like pulling Velcro apart,” Naskrecki said.

At that point the spider can use its pair of two-inch-long fangs to inject venom.

Some good news. Although the spider’s bite is venomous, it’s not deadly to humans. But it would still be extremely painful, “like driving a nail through your hand,” Naskrecki said. “They will essentially attack anything that they encounter.”

The spider hunts in leaf litter on the ground at night, so the chances of it encountering a bird are very small, Naskrecki explained. However, if it found a nest, it could easily kill the parents and the chicks, he said, adding that the spider species has also been known to puncture and drink bird eggs. The spider will also eat frogs and insects, but its main prey is actually earthworms, which come out at night when it’s humid. “Earthworms are very nutritious,” Naskrecki said.

Despite all this as well as the threat of pain equivalent to “driving a nail through your hand,” Naskrecki actually captured the spider for further study. Science!