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An Entomologist and wildlife photographer, Piotr Naskrecki, who was walking in the Guyana’s rainforest in the midnight and suddenly he heard a rustling sound like something was creeping under his feet. Eventually, when he turned around with his flashlight on, he saw a puppy-sized animal rustling around.
The excitement of Piotr Naskrecki uttered, when the creature turned out to be a goliath spider. “When I turned on the flashlight, I couldn’t quite understand what I was seeing,” Naskrecki, from Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, stated.
According to the Guinness World Records, Goliath Spider, also known as the South American Goliath birdeater (Theraphosa blondi), is supposedly the world’s largest spider. The leg span of this huge arachnid spider can reach up to a foot (30 cms), or about the size of “a child’s forearm,” with a body the size of “a large fist,” Naskrecki claimed. Moreover, the spider can weigh more than 6 oz. (170 grams) — about as much as a young puppy, the scientist further explained.
The spider has massive sharp fangs, which could inflict deep wounds, though the venom of the goliath bird eating spider isn’t deadly to humans.
When Piotr Naskrecki closely observed the spider, he found that it was rubbing its hind legs against its abdomen- an action, which the scientist found kind of cute. But afterwards, he realized the spider was sending out a cloud of hairs with microscopic barbs on them. It has been known that when these hairs get in the eyes or other mucous membranes, they can turn out to be “extremely painful and itchy,” and can stay there for days, he said.
Though the goliath spider‘s bite is poisonous, but it’s not deadly to humans. However, it would still be tremendously painful, “like someone is driving a nail through your hand,” Naskrecki added.
Naskrecki told that, the goliath spider hunts at night, and feeds on small animals, insects, frogs and earthworms. These spiders are also hard to find. “I’ve been working in the tropics in South America for almost the past 15 years, but I only saw the spider three times,” he added.
Piotr Naskrecki took the sample back to his lab to study after catching the same found by him in Guyana. She’s now deposited in a museum.
Brian Galloway
Brian’s philosophy is pretty straightforward: easy living, wishful thinking, heavy criticizing. Despite the fact that he wouldn’t go as far as describe himself a conspirationist, Brian does take everything with a grain of sand. He loves following every lead when covering a story and mostly enjoys to cover politics and US news.
