Althouse: The chicken-eating spider.

May 7, 2007

The chicken-eating spider.

Oh, no!!

26 comments:

Dad Bones said...: It looks like the survivors are more into eating than grieving.; 5/7/07, 7:38 AM
Jennifer said...: Wow. Ok, I'll stop complaining about the prehistoric insects of NC.; 5/7/07, 7:54 AM
Gahrie said...: Somebody get that spider some barbeque sauce!; 5/7/07, 8:03 AM
AllenS said...: I hope that was a really little chicken and not a very big spider.; 5/7/07, 8:34 AM
Anonymous said...: My nephew has a Goliath Bird Eater named Hortense, a very sweet spider. I don't have a picture of her, but here's one on the web:

http://www.rinr.fsu.edu/fall2004/images/hands2.jpg

Hortense has a leg span of only seven inches, but she's only five years old. She's got another 25 years or so to get up to her full 12 inch leg span.; 5/7/07, 9:28 AM
Roost on the Moon said...: I hope that was a really little chicken and not a very big spider.

Ha!

When I was about ten, my brother and I had a large fake spider that sat on a small air bladder, linked to a squeeze-bulb with a thin length of tubing. It's amazing how a little movement will sell that illusion.

The moments of sheer raving panic this toy could inspire in adults were, in hindsight, borderline dangerous.

We loved that thing so much.; 5/7/07, 9:30 AM
Veeshir said...: Great, just what I need. Some creepy, nightmare material.
I'll be running from that spider all night tonight screaming "I don't taste like chicken."; 5/7/07, 11:16 AM
Roger J. said...: Rightwingprof: Somehow I am having difficulty reconciling "sweet" and spider--NOT that I am an arachnophobe, mind you.......I used to carefully move black widows from my garage to the outside to avoid killing them.; 5/7/07, 11:26 AM
Meade said...: DON'T BELIEVE IT! IT'S A DECOY! TO CONFUSE THE CREEPS!!; 5/7/07, 12:19 PM
Anonymous said...: "Tastes like fly!"; 5/7/07, 12:45 PM
KCFleming said...: That chicken's not dead.
He's probably just pinin' for the fjords.; 5/7/07, 2:00 PM
Anonymous said...: "Somehow I am having difficulty reconciling "sweet" and spider"

Hortense, despise her size, is a New World tarantula, most of which are not aggressive. She has never bitten, and is quite patient. My nephew also has a Malaysian Earth Tiger, an Old World tarantula, a great deal smaller than Hortense, but Mai Ling (the earth tiger) is frighteningly aggressive and with repeatedly strike anything you put near her. They are reportedly pretty venemous.

New World tarantulas' first defense is not to strike, but turn around and flick irritating hairs at you.; 5/7/07, 2:29 PM
Roger J. said...: RWP: Hortense is indeed a charming name for a spider. But now you have me really interested: how does a spider flick hairs--one presumes they are loosely attached--?; 5/7/07, 2:34 PM
Charlie said...: What goes around, comes around.

Where these spiders live, the Yanomame indians consider them a delicacy. They view the eating of chickens as barbaric, thinking of them as pets.; 5/7/07, 4:03 PM
T.K. Tortch said...: Nothing gets between a chicken and its feed. Especially not an already-dead chicken. Back on my cousin's farm I used to catch chickens for supper by throwing a little feed on the ground. The chickens, usually wary, would immediately mob at your feet. Just reach down and grab the one you want by the legs. The other chickens wouldn't blink, but keep eating. Heck, the chicken you grabbed (and how had upside down by the legs) would try to peck at the feed if you lowered it close enough to the ground!!; 5/7/07, 5:20 PM
Dactyl said...: Aaagh, giant spider! Cast fireball! CAST FIREBALL!!!; 5/7/07, 6:05 PM
Jay Manifold said...: That picture is the anti-Cute Overload.; 5/7/07, 7:20 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: At first I thought the picture was Photoshopped but then realized the spider isn't eating the chicken, it's just clearing the area. It's part of the cleaning crew.; 5/7/07, 9:06 PM
Steve Burri said...: One and two and three and... watch the xiphoid so you don't lacerate the chicken liver... and four and five... blow a breath into the beak... make sure you block the nostrils with your pedipalps... get that defibrillator over here... CLEAR!! Back off! A resuscitated chicken is more dangerous than one with his head chopped off!; 5/7/07, 9:53 PM
Anonymous said...: New World tarantulas have barbed hairs that can be quite irritating. They turn around and flick them off with their back legs. Few New World tarantulas are aggressive. I have handled Hortense (she's a bit larger than my hand), though it does make me just a bit nervous. While she's no more venemous than a bee or a wasp, she does have half-inch fangs, and I'm sure if she struck, it would be painful.; 5/8/07, 11:48 AM
Unknown said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/1/07, 9:42 PM
Unknown said...: i got back from Peru in oct 2007 and have seen a baby chicken spider for my self, and if this was a baby then this photo is for real!
I will gladly e-mail the doubters with my photo's; 1/23/08, 12:17 PM
Lyle said...: That is a real spider, but I'm sure it didn't kill that chicken. It was probably just placed there to get it's picture taken.; 4/10/08, 4:12 AM
Eric B said...: It's finals time in your con law class. Does the bird represent a student and the spider the final?; 5/8/08, 6:46 PM
LarryS said...: Ah this is a take on the legendary chicken eating spider, a new species of probably Pamphobeteus discovered recently. It may take the title of world's largest spider,currently held by T.blondi.; 4/13/10, 3:11 AM
Unknown said...: Got ti eat something. But you chuld of you chuld of eaten at KFC or Nandos but raw that's how you get food poisoning. Silly spider; 10/15/13, 7:01 PM