….As Big As A Dinner Plate
Oh, the wild and wonderful things you find in the rain forests of Peru:
Martin’s quarry is an un-catalogued species. It is called the Chicken Eating spider because eye witnesses claim to have seen it dragging chickens into its burrow on the edge of jungle clearings. Estimates put it at around 10 inches from one hairy foot to another.
And he found it: a tarantula as big as a dinner plate. And a very odd tarantula, too. Known tarantulas are solitary; after a brood hatches, the “spiderlings” need to scatter PDQ, because Ol’ Mom gets mighty hungry while gestating, and the young’uns are fair game. The Chicken Eating spider, on the other hand, shares its burrow with several generations of its offspring.
Don’t miss the pictures; it really has to be seen to be believed.
Update: Here’s another link. Oh, and I was alerted to this by my friend Dave Jaffe.