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Author Topic:   Spider As Big As A Puppy!
Randall
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posted October 18, 2014 11:41 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Piotr Naskrecki was taking a nighttime walk in a rainforest in Guyana, when he heard rustling as if something were creeping underfoot. When he turned on his flashlight, he expected to see a small mammal, such as a possum or a rat.

"When I turned on the light, I couldn't quite understand what I was seeing," said Naskrecki, an entomologist and photographer at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology.

A moment later, he realized he was looking not at a brown, furry mammal, but an enormous, puppy-size spider.

Known as the South American Goliath birdeater (Theraphosa blondi), the colossal arachnid is the world's largest spider, according to Guinness World Records. Itsleg span can reach up to a foot (30 centimeters), or about the size of "a child's forearm," with a body the size of "a large fist," Naskrecki told Live Science. And the spider can weigh more than 6 oz. (170 grams) — about as much as a young puppy, the scientist wrote on his blog. [See Photos of the Goliath Birdeater Spider]

Some sources say the giant huntsman spider, which has a larger leg span, is bigger than the birdeater. But the huntsman is much more delicate than the hefty birdeater — comparing the two would be "like comparing a giraffe to an elephant," Naskrecki said.

The birdeater's enormity is evident from the sounds it makes. "Its feet have hardened tips and claws that produce a very distinct, clicking sound, not unlike that of a horse's hooves hitting the ground," he wrote, but "not as loud."

Prickly hairs and 2-inch fangs

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.

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.

Yet despite all that, the spider doesn't pose a threat to humans. Even if it bites you, "a chicken can probably do more damage," Naskrecki said.

Bird eater or mostly harmless?

Despite its name, the birdeater doesn't usually eat birds, although it is certainly capable of killing small mammals. "They will essentially attack anything that they encounter," Naskrecki said.

The spider hunts in leaf litter on the ground at night, so the chances of it encountering a bird are very small, he said. 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 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.

Birdeaters are not very common spiders. "I've been working in the tropics in South America for many, many years, and in the last 10 to 15 years, I only ran across the spider three times," Naskrecki.

After catching the specimen he found in Guyana, which was female, Naskrecki took her back to his lab to study. She's now deposited in a museum.
http://news.yahoo.com/goliath-encounter-puppy-sized-spider-surprises-scientist-rainforest-125720953.html

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Randall
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posted October 19, 2014 01:22 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Click on the link for a pic.

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Dee
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posted October 19, 2014 02:36 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Dee     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I showed this to my Daughter,she is always checking for spiders

we have weird big grey ones outside..But this one has to be the Biggest grandaddy of spiders we ever saw.

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Randall
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posted October 20, 2014 12:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Pet the spider!

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Dee
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posted October 20, 2014 03:33 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Dee     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
lol

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Randall
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posted October 21, 2014 10:53 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Two-inch fangs!

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Dee
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posted October 21, 2014 12:03 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Dee     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I guess he won't need a costume for Halloween

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Dee
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posted October 28, 2014 02:53 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Dee     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
When scientist Piotr Naskrecki encountered a puppy-sized spider in Guyana, his photos of the giant arachnid quickly became an Internet sensation.

While the huge spider generated massive buzz, however, the Harvard researcher has come in for a firestorm of criticism for killing the creature and bringing it back to a museum. In a blog post Naskrecki explained that he was in Guyana to collect specimens for the Center for the Study of Biological Diversity at the University of Guyana.

Posts on Naskrecki’s Facebook page have accused the scientist of cruelty and Bloomberg Businessweek reports that he has even received a death threat via email.

Responding to the criticism in a blog post post entitled “Involuntary Bioslaughter and Why a Spider is Dead” Naskrecki explained his actions.

“Collecting and preservation of physical specimens is an integral, irreplaceable element of biological sciences,” he wrote. “There is hardly a branch of biology that does not rely on the examination of organisms’ bodies (the only exception I can think of is ethology, and only some variants of it), be it for the purpose of their identification, understanding of the functions of their respiratory system, or the speed of transmission of neural signals.”

The South American Goliath birdeater, also known by its Latin name of Theraphosa blondi, is the world’s largest spider, and can weigh more than 6 oz.

“Theraphosa blondi is indeed the largest spider in the world (although its legs are not foot long, as some media reported), and thus it makes a perfect specimen for teaching spider morphology,” he added. “It is also a very common species, not protected or endangered, and collecting of a single individual poses absolutely no threat to its survival.”

In his blog post, Naskrecki noted that the animal was "properly euthanized and preserved," adding that it was then "carefully labelled and deposited in the collection in Guyana where to this day it serves as an important teaching tool."

Emphasizing the scientific role of animal specimen collections, Naskrecki pointed to the studies of bird egg shells that led to the eventual ban on the use of the insecticide DDT.

While the scientist has come in for criticism, numerous posters have leapt to his defense on his Facebook page.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers


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Randall
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posted November 01, 2014 01:10 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Dee:
I guess he won't need a costume for Halloween

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