Image: Scientist Stumbles Upon A Puppy-Sized Spider

Whiile Piotr Naskrecki was strolling through a rainforest in Guyana, he heard a rustling sound. “When I turned on the light, I couldn’t quite understand what I was seeing,” Naskrecki, an entomologist and photographer at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, said.

What he saw was an enormous, puppy-sized spider, according to Live Science.

The spider Naskrecki encountered is known as the South American Goliath birdeater (Theraphosa blondi), a colossal arachnid, considered the world’s largest spider. It can weigh as much as a young puppy.

Live Science reports:

When Naskrecki approached the imposing creature in the rainforest, it would rub its hind legs against its abdomen. At first, the scientist thought the behavior was “cute,” he said, but then he realized the spider was sending out a cloud of hairs with microscopic barbs on them. When these hairs get in the eyes or other mucous membranes, they are “extremely painful and itchy,” and can stay there for days, he said. [Creepy-Crawly Gallery: See Spooky Photos of Spiders]

But its prickly hairs aren’t the birdeater’s only line of defense; it also sports a pair of 2-inch-long (5 centimeters) fangs. 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.

And the eight-legged beast has a third defense mechanism up its hairy sleeve. 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.

Sleep well everyone. I swear, theres are no spiders under your bed. Honest. Trust me, I’m a blogger.

H/T: @ComgenKDT with thanks.  

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