Love-Hate and Spiders

Admit it, spiders scare the crap out of you And yet, there's no question they're cool. And it's not just about how deadly their poison is or if they need those two extra legs. There are other factors, e.g., nasty poison and creepiness—even when they're small.

My Neighbor

The ones with the long pointy legs and penny-size, mosaic bodies really give me the creeps. Some of them are large enough to regularly eat meat and poultry. We've all seen these mothers, often narrowly escaping running into one of their damn webs, which are nothing like steel, no matter what they told you in bio class.

Way back in time, on an older earth with more oxygen in the atmosphere, spiders got really big, like bigger than your hand big. They may have still used webs but now they could also chase down prey. It's hard to contemplate, especially if you camp without a tent.

All I can say is thank god for lower oxygen levels--because no matter how cool spiders are it would be far creepier if giant spiders lurked around corners or hunted in packs.

My worst fears were realized when I discovered the Coconut Crab. According to Wikipedia: The coconut crab, Birgus latro, is a species of terrestrial hermit crab, also known as the robber crab or palm thief. It is the largest land-living arthropod in the world, and is probably at the upper size limit for terrestrial animals with exoskeletons in recent Earth atmosphere, with a weight of up to 4.1 kg (9.0 lb). It can grow to up to 1 m (3 ft) in length from leg to leg. It is found on islands across the Indian Ocean and parts of the Pacific Ocean as far east as the Gambier Islands.

Not yet worried? How about some pics to help you sleep on your next exotic vacation:

And of course my personal favorite:

PS: Now on a scale of one to seriously-creepy, if size doesn't count, microscopic insects make spiders and even Coconut crabs look cute. Just look at the menacing mini-crustacea, with long, hairy, spiky legs, all floating around in a gelatinous liquid microscopic landscape, a hideous inner-world that occupies, say, a human tear duct, or the esophagus of a Drosophila.