# Giant tarantula discovered **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 4, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861 "2013-04-04T21:13:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/21 "2013-04-05T10:51:16Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > I was wondering the same thing. The caption under one of the grey ones says it is a male one, so maybe the one with yellow and pink 80s-style accessories is female? Which is odd, as usually it’s the males of critters that are brighter and showier than the females, at least when it comes to birds and such. Maybe spiders are different… Or are the colours only on the underside? Among spiders, the females are normally the more brightly coloured and bigger sex. Tarantula girls especially are generally much chunkier than the males, even when the overall maximum length/width is similar. > [@Colophon](#): > > Also, what’s up with this statement? > > So, it’s a newly discovered species, but they know its numbers have dwindled? Riiiight. It’s newly described, yes (though as the article says, scientists first saw it 3 years ago)- but I’m sure the locals have long known about an 8-inch brightly coloured spider that regularly lives in houses… ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/22 "2013-04-05T10:53:58Z")
This is why I hesitate to vacation in tropical climes. Spiders will not eat your face in Iceland. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/23 "2013-04-05T11:14:06Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > This is why I hesitate to vacation in tropical climes. > > Spiders will not eat your face in Iceland. [Meanwhile in Australia…](http://wafflesatnoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/SpiderMeme.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Ms.Pumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@Ms.Pumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms.Pumpkin)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/24 "2013-04-05T12:03:49Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Also, what’s up with this statement? > > > [@](#): > > > > “They prefer well-established old trees, but due to deforestation the number have dwindled and due to lack of suitable habitat they enter old buildings.” > > So, it’s a newly discovered species, but they know its numbers have dwindled? Riiiight. I took it to mean the number of suitable _trees_ have dwindled, not the spider population. Fewer trees means they are moving into buildings. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/25 "2013-04-05T12:38:22Z")
Jebus fuck almighty. Kill it! ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/26 "2013-04-05T17:30:42Z")
It’s beautiful! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/27 "2013-04-05T17:39:47Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Jebus fuck almighty. > > Kill it! Obligatory _Aliens_ quote here. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/28 "2013-04-05T17:46:20Z")
What a cute little critter. It’s all dressed up for the cotillion. > [@](#): > > Its legs, which have unique daffodil-yellow markings, span a massive 20cm (eight inches). The arachnid also has a distinctive pink band around its body. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/29 "2013-04-05T17:49:47Z")
I think it’s pretty. I once had a orange-kneed tarantula as a pet (probably about 1/4 that size). Not that I’d want it sleeping on my face. But I don’t like it when the cat tries to do that either. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/30 "2013-04-05T17:50:14Z")
> [@](#): > > The giant tarantula is as big as a human face. > > Which lucky camper woke up to discover that fact? > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > “The same one who found out where they lay their eggs”, … Gee, can you imagine if you thought you just had a zit on your chin, but then you squeezed it and a bunch of little spiders came out? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/31 "2013-04-05T17:55:43Z")
As for the sleeping/face comment, a true story. At our cabin in northern Quebec, there live Dock Spiders. They are not as big as these monsters, but they are plenty big enough - say, a legspan of 4 inches. Well, one day we went to the cottage to find a window busted and the place full of mosquitos. We fixed it up as best we could, and rigged a homemade mosquito net from a sheet that just covered our faces. I wake up next morning, to see an enormous dock spider happily clinging upside down to the sheet - some 6 inches over my face. Wriggling out from under that was a very careful exercise! ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/32 "2013-04-05T18:25:24Z")
> [@deltasigma](#): > > What a cute little critter. It’s all dressed up for the cotillion. > > > [@](#): > > > > Its legs, which have unique daffodil-yellow markings, span a massive 20cm (eight inches). The arachnid also has a distinctive pink band around its body. Great, it’s the fucking Easter Spider. How in the hell does something that big go unnoticed for…well how long have there been hominids in SriLanka? Why are there not temples built to this horror? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/33 "2013-04-05T18:29:36Z")
It probably had killed and eaten everyone that had seen it before. ---
**Author:** ![Fuhgeddaboudit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc29f/32.png) [@Fuhgeddaboudit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuhgeddaboudit)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/34 "2013-04-05T18:36:39Z")
That is so amazing. Looks really cool. ---
**Author:** ![Shark\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Shark\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark_Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/35 "2013-04-05T18:37:04Z")
When we lived in Florida, we did a lot of camping. And as is common with camping, the kids are put to bed and the adults stay up and sit around the campfire, swapping stories, and having a few drinks. After a couple of hours of this, I got from my chair and proceeded to walk out to an area that was a bit more remote to find some relief. By the light of a particularly bright moon, I walked between two trees (as I had a couple of other times during the night) and ran my face smack dab into the center of a banana spider’s webbing, and felt what seemed like a golf ball hit me in the forehead. I gave myself a bloody nose dispatching that friggin’ spider. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/36 "2013-04-05T18:50:44Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > I was going to ask this too. Only one pic matches the description, and the other pictures appear unrelated. While the pic that matches does show the underside, and the others don’t, I think the one looks rounder and chunkier, whereas the others are more leggy and have more elongated body parts. We call those ‘muffin-top spiders’. They’ll grow out of that phase in their late teens. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/37 "2013-04-05T18:57:37Z")
Here is a fun fact. Did you know that on average 7 people a year are eaten in their sleep by these spiders? It’s true! ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/38 "2013-04-05T19:01:38Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > A few years ago I lucked onto a Tarantula migration. I saw hundreds of them over about a 5 mile stretch, crossing the highway (two lane) making their way toward white sands missile range. There must have been thousands of them in the “herd”. Turns out Tarantulas have a pretty low wind tolerance. They were getting picked up and tumbled by the wake of passing cars. Giant spiders flying through the air??!?!?!?!? Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek: ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/39 "2013-04-05T19:04:12Z")
Well I think they’re adorable, the little buggers. Have they found an adult one of those yet? ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861/40 "2013-04-05T19:44:31Z")
When I first saw the headline I assumed they would be in Australia. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-tarantula-discovered/654861.md?page=3)