I’m finding it very hard to give a witty, clever, or funny retort to this story, it’s just to easy. It gives you an opening to make a joke on a silver platter.
I saw this story this morning and my first thought was “Finally, a news event worth reporting about! Now this is news.”
Technically, although arthropods, “harvestmen” = “Daddy Long Legs” are not spiders.
But that IS an erect penis.
Apparently spiders, like other animals (including people) can have erections after death, when it seems pretty superfluous.
I read Dr Steven Novella’s blog, Neurologica. He has written often about science reporting in popular literature and how if there is any way to work “penis” or any other base topic into a science report it happens.