There is a newly discovered species of giant spider to get creeped out by:
- Photo by Yael Olek, courtesy of the University of Haifa
Scientists have unearthed a completely new species of spider hiding in sand dunes on the Israel-Jordan border.
With a legspan that stretches 5.5 inches, the spider, called Cerbalus aravensis, is the biggest of its type in the Middle East. “It is rare to find a new species of spider — at least around this part of the world — which is so big,” said biologist Uri Shanas of the University of Haifa-Oranim in Israel, who discovered the arachnid.
Most of Cerbalus aravensis’s habits remain a mystery, but the researchers say it is nocturnal and most active during the blazing summer heat. The spider lives in an underground den, hidden by a door that swings upwards to welcome unsuspecting prey like lizards and insects. To make the camouflage door, the spider patches together bits of sand.
The head looks a like a white Darth Vader.
Darn. I guess I’ll be cancelling my vacation on the Israel-Jordan border, which previously seemed so safe.
It looks like that thing has a face. That is unacceptable.
The picture on Wired is bigger and there’s a second picture of it that’s even more shudder inducing. NSFAnyone the least bit skeeved by spiders that are just TOO DAMN BIG!
That’s nothing. Look at what I grew up with in these here United States: banana spiders. And these babies don’t hang around underground. Oh no, they make these huge friggin’ webs!!!
http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messa…
Damn you, Brissey. As if the world weren’t crawling enough with spiders–waiting for me to close my eyes so they can CLIMB INTO MY SKIN AND LAY BABIES–now you put them into my computer. I’m going to replace my regular deodorant with Raid.
While not technically a spider, the coconut crab totally freaks me out.
@2 – nice one.
@5 – Yeah, they have those in a few different countries. Although I’ve always called them orb spiders. Haven’t seen them quite so big, though. The webs are a bitch – accidentally walking through a web is a much more unpleasant experience ever since I first met an orb spider. /shudders
Australia has Huntsman spiders: http://natural-japan.net/photos/Heteropo… Huntsman don’t even build webs – they just run around and hunt stuff. And watch you.
I feel like that photo should have been after the jump or something. My skin is crawling now.
Mr. Bissey:
You are an asshole.
As a non-arachnophobe, I think this is pretty cool. That coconut crab (@7), though… had no idea those things existed!
What!? Am I the only person (so far) on Slog who finds that spider beautiful? Mother Nature, and natural selection, is such a fine sculptress!
Er, MomNat and natselect ARE fine sculptors.
thank you so much for posting this!!! this bio nerd’s morning just got ten thousand times better!!
They come out at night, mostly.
dear attitude devant. i hate you. please don’t ever post anything again.
Sorry, 16! If it helps any they aren’t poisonous. There used to be a big web with one in it outside my bedroom window. In the screened-in pool enclosure. I never knew how it got there. I was too skeeved by it to take the web down, which is just as well, because it probably would have rebuilt it right away. And kill the spider itself? With what, a Remington rifle? Not my foot, surely (at this time in my life I owned only sandals…)!
Which I guess doesn’t help much, huh?
yeah a rifle would probably do it. but make sure to burn the earth it splatters onto.
This new spider called Cerbalus aravensis. The home of this spider is also diminishing and soon will be gone!The places where this animal has it’s home is on the sand dunes of the desert. Isreal land administration is talking about another mining operation. If they do open another mining operation these great and magestic animals may be gone for ever.