Giant Spiders
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 15th, 2006
How big do spiders get?
To get an idea of scale, here is spider owner Ged Casserley with some of his former pets, a Goliath birdeater and other real-life giant spiders. Photo: Ged Casserley.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
that thought’s gonna haunt my sleep tonight. thanks!
How fast are those birdeaters? Larger spiders are always portrayed as rather slow moving in movies, and I’ve always wondered if that was true or if the spiders used in films just weren’t in a hurry.
Ah… Ye ole Theraphosa leblondi. a timeless classic..
I saw these Camel Spiders the other day that are very scary. Lots of bogus info on the web, but you can check out some good info here.
These look very scary! It says they can run 10 mph!
Looking at these with my feet curled round underneath me.
Those are some huge spiders, may be even bigger ones around the world.
Gee, thanks for sharing. Next to snakes, spiders are also on my list.
The Theraphosa blondi and Theraphosa apophysis get even larger than the one pictured….I have the final shed of a very large female that is a good 15% larger than the one in the photo posted here.
To answer the ‘speed’ question, they are quite reasonably quick, but not fast…their locomotion is about what you might expect from a meandering mouse, but they can cover small distances (to catch prey) very quickly.
The Theraphosa are quite capable of predating (very successfully) on large adult mice and smaller birds. These spiders possess fangs that are a full inch long, and pack a painful bite.
For greywolf and sausage1:
Spiders and snakes are nothing to fear once you have seen an 18″-20″ specimen of Scolopendra gigantea robusta, a giant, heavy-bodied centipede from the Amazon that is very aggressive, fast, and significantly venomous to humans.
I believe that it is possible that we may someday discover a 26″-30″ long centipede, as there are a number of giant (12″+) species, and most can live in excess of 30 years.
Eeewwww!
No joke, in some places in South America, the larger spiders are trapped for food, roasted in the fire to burn the stinging hairs off and cook them, then eaten like a crab, which they are said to supposedly taste like (instead of chicken)!
Personally, I’ll stick to with my banana spiders. They seem pretty small now that I’ve seen that big one is the size of his head!
I was just gonna say that CamelSpider are rather than bigger than most spider. I’m glad you post that site for camelspider. They’re the creepiest I’ve heard off. But if you’re going with general term of Spider. The biggest spider in the world is a Spider Crab. Yes, a crab with very long legs. (Laugh)
What’s more creepy about spiders is that I read some where that said about 85% of the time, Small spider crawl into people’s mouth when their sleeping. You might say, Oh well, that’s not a problem, I sleep with my mouth close…. Are you really sure that you sleep with your mouth close?????
-Brian (VT)
What next for a blockbuster, “Spiders on a Ship” starring Samuel L. Jackson?
I’m glad I live in Canada and not the Amazon.
fredfacker:
It’s called a bird eater because it sneaks up on birds and jumps on them before they can fly away. =D Fast bastids.
I love spiders.
Hmmm, I can see the spider eating thing, but do they have much muscle structure to eat? And yes, there are spiders that get much bigger than that. I just dont happen to have any pictures of them.
I had been in Panama this past year and saw the rare “Asesino Gigante Del Lobo” spider. That thing is four feet from side to side and vicious. I dropped my camera after I took pictures when the thing started chasing us. Thank goodness for cars.
Spiders and snakes are your friends. They keep the pest populations in check. Don’t hate them and squash them. Marvel at them, and be thankful that they are on your side.
I hate spiders and my husband told me scary stories of camel spiders in Iraq (but I think he was trying to scare me). As I too found all kinds of info on them in the web and they always says something different. But hey, it’s on the web it must be true.
cool my mom would freak out
Thank you, Toirtis. I shall never sleep again.
Hey arfy,
what is a “Asesino Gigante Del Lobo”?
All info would be greatly appreciated.
Camel spiders are not spiders, but are rather a type of tailless scorpion. They have no venom, but with a four-sectioned jaw, they can deliver a nasty bite, nonetheless.
We have them here is the states, though smaller, called the sun scorpion-I live in NE California and see them often in my house and at my farm. They are fast, and can be agressive, though none of the ones I have dealt with were.