OMG! Biggest Spider?!?!

Photos of a mammoth spider devouring a bird in a Queensland backyard are sweeping email inboxes — and according to experts, it's all real.

The photos — which are reported to have been taken this week in Atherton, west of Cairns — show the spider clenching its legs around a lifeless bird trapped in a web.

Head spider keeper at the Australian Reptile Park at Gosford on NSW central coast, Joel Shakespeare, said the spider was a Golden Orb Weaver.

"Normally they prey on large insects… it's unusual to see one eating a bird," he told ninemsn.

Mr Shakepeare said he had seen Golden Orb Weaver spiders as big as a human hand but the northern species in tropical areas were known to grow larger.

Queensland Museum identified the bird as a native finch called the Chestnut–breasted Mannikin.

The bird, which appears frozen in an angel-like pose, most likely flew into the web and got caught, according to Mr Shakepeare.

"It wouldn't eat the whole bird," he said.



But the spider would probably prepare a liquid soup with the finch — as it does with insects — and discard of what it doesn't need.

"It uses its venom to break down the bird for eating and what it leaves is a food parcel," he said.

Greg Czechura from Queensland Museum said cases of the Golden Orb Weaver eating small birds were "well known but rare".

"It builds a very strong web," he said.

But he said the spider would not have attacked until the bird weakened.

"They blunder into [the webs] and their feathers get entangled," he said.

"The more they struggle, the more tangled up and exhausted they get and they go into stress."

The Golden Orb Weaver spins a strong web high in protein because it depends on it to capture large insects for food, unlike funnel web and wolf spiders that actively hunt their prey.

Another species of spider called the bird-eating spider does not actually eat birds.

"If a spider gets a bird, it's a very lucky spider," Mr Czechura said.

 

Wow they must have strong webs to trap a bird.

Lucky spider, theres a lot of blood in there for it to drink lol. Also it is pretty damn big, i'd shit myself if i walked into its web.

 

I would shit a brick if I saw that personally.

 

Camel spiders are bigger.




They are flesh-eating.

Here's a picture of ONE bite:

 

My shoe is bigger.

 

I know, specially being in Qld, still Cairns is a long way away lol, thank god

Holey crap! That's huge, ewwwwww

 

That's one dangers of being a soldier out in the sandbox.. >_>

They literally have to shoot at them with their rifles to kill 'em.

 

Petty sure camel spiders aren't in your backyards though... are they??

This one with the bird, is just in a guys backyard. If I saw spiders that big in my backyard, I'd be moving, srsly!...

 

Naw, camel spiders roam the desert. xD You might have one in your backayrd if you lived in the desert?

If I saw any spider that big, I'd grab my shotgun. ._.

 

^^ no actually I found a camel spider crawling up my stairs, it was a baby though. bout as big as the palm of my hand. It fought back when i tried to hit it with the paper though. And it squealed a little when I killed it. I live in Arizona by the way.

 

Arizona is hot, so it might be something to do with the heat..

And they can move up to 10mph

 

I get possums, ferrets, cats, llams.. everything in my backyard. its like I live in a damn zoo.

Oh, and my shoe is STILL bigger then this spider. Shoe = ftw, spider = epic fail

 

I found it in surprise.. surprise is a newly developign city and my house is right near the desert where no construction has started yet.. so yeah.

 

Wholey shit !! That's insane, specially for a spider, and pfttt dad said (when i was like 5) "spiders wouldn't hurt you, your bigger than them" >_> (What else did he lie about? Santa Clause, Easter Bunny ??)

 

No santa is real you fool.

 

I lol'd.

And yeah, my dad said that to. xD

I showed him pictures of a Brown Recluse' bite, and Camel Spider bite and he's like.. "yeah..."

Brown Recluse bite is pretty scary to.

 

I'm scared of daddy long legs.

 

look at the camel spider in action.. and yeah now i have it confirmed that they do exist in Arizona. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMhILe_c18A&feature=related

 

Lmao, when i was a kid if i found one i'd drown them in the sink and then pull them out and blow on them to try to make them come back to life. I figured if i saved their life then they'd like be my friend and would do whatever i told them to lol. Usually when some did come back to life ofcourse they didn't do anything i told them to so i figured they didn't realise i saved their life so i'd drown it again. So eventually all the spiders i ever drowned, all died.

 

^^^ LOL , sounds like something I would have done when I was younger.