Giant Bird-eating Spiders

Some funny fellow added this photo on a Facebook page and said it was a typical Australian spider. This elicited several responses, one of which immediately noticed that it was a photoshopped job and that the grains under the human hand were smaller than the ones under the spider. OK that is acceptable. Then there were two other lines with multiple comments each, one saying "No that's actually a South American bird-eating spider"and then again "Yes that is an Australian bird-eating spider and some are bigger than that"

Some selected comments follow (there were over a thousand responses in all):

Jean Maree Brook: We had one in our house just slightly smaller then this one,big sac like that,Elijah,(my daughter),looked down and it was right next to her foot,then the next night it was in the loungeroom.And were in inner sydney,go figure..They seen to be getting bigger

Lana Stanbury: We have large one large one over here "the Avondale" spider comes bigger than a dinner plate had one in our house at St Mary's Bay. Very furry they are and harmless

Bente Buhr Bethnas: Eastern tarantula is the biggest birdeating spider in australia and can grow bigger than a mans hand so i dont think its fake .. ive seen another big spider at he home of one of my daughters friends and it was a blondie ... also called goliath .. it was still a teenanger and was bigger than my hand and he told us it would be around the size of a dinnerplate .. yak ..

Micah E Giantology This is not average size for any spider on earth today. There have been some 1/4 pound record spiders from the Amazon, with 11 inch leg spans, and a 12 to 13 inch span spider this size could very well exist, but this spider in this photo is a prop, or digitally enhanced.

[...So we can very well mark down that the photo is a fake...but at the same time there are witnesses  that are willing to swear that spiders can be a foot across or bigger (like the one in the photo) in both Astralia and in South America. This is confirmation of older rumours we had heard before, and they might not be true, but its possibly valuable to know that the rumours persist.-DD]

DISCOVERED: A New Species Of TARANTULA AS BIG AS THE HUMAN FACE [W/ VIDEO]

DISCOVERED: A New Species Of TARANTULA AS BIG AS THE HUMAN FACE [W/ VIDEO]

Scientists have discovered a new species of tiger spider living in northern Sri Lanka.

Scientists have found a new species of tarantula as large as the average human face.Ranil Nanayakkara and his colleagues discovered Poecilotheria rajaei, a new species of tiger spider, in northern Sri Lanka. It was first noticed in 2009, when villagers brought a spider they had killed to researchers.

giant new tarantula species discovered

“Days of extensive searching in every tree hole and bark peel were rewarded with a female and to our satisfaction several juveniles too,” Nanayakkara and his colleagues said in a study about the spiders published in the British Tarantula Society Journal.

P. rajaei was named after a police inspector, Puraja, who helped the researchers locate the spider.
While examining the spider, the researchers noticed it didn’t look quite like any of the other tiger spiders known to live in Sri Lanka because of its markings and “other significant differences.” After further study, they were able to establish it as a new species.
Tiger spiders typically live in tree hollows, under rocks and, during monsoon season, in human dwellings that are close to forests. The Poecilotheria species exists only in India and Sri Lanka and is known for its colorful markings and remarkable speed – as well as its size.



Tiger spiders are large enough to eat birds, small snakes and mice and catch them using speed and potent venom, rather than webs.
Several species of Poecilotheria are endangered due to loss of habitat.



Read more at http://www.secretsofthefed.com/a-new-species-of-tarantula-as-big-as-the-human-face-discovered/#m8H6jDoXXcm1QOJ5.99

Tarantula The Size Of A Human Face Discovered

Tarantula The Size Of A Human Face Discovered

1:51pm UK, Thursday 04 April 2013
http://news.sky.com/story/1073751/tarantula-the-size-of-a-human-face-discovered

Scientists have found an enormous, previously unknown, species of venomous spider in a remote Sri Lankan village.

The newly-found spider (Pics: British Tarantula Society/ Ranil Nanayakkara)

The giant tarantula is as big as a human face.

Its legs, which have unique daffodil-yellow markings, span a massive 20cm (eight inches). The arachnid also has a distinctive pink band around its body.

The new species was found in the war-torn north of the South Asian country by scientists from Sri Lanka's Biodiversity Education and Research (BER) organisation.

It has been named Poecilotheria rajaei, in recognition of a senior police officer called Michael Rajakumar Purajah, who guided the research team through a hazardous jungle overrun by civil unrest in order to seek out the spider.

The spider is said to prefer living on old trees

The arachnid had originally been presented to BER three years ago by villagers in Mankulam, who had killed a male specimen.

Scientists immediately realised the dead spider was not like anything they already knew and a group was charged with finding any living relatives.

The living Poecilotheria rajaei were eventually discovered in the former doctor's quarters of the village's hospital.

According to wired.com, Ranil Nanayakkara, the co-founder of BER, said: "They are quite rare.

The tarantula is characterised by its yellow legs and pink band

"They prefer well-established old trees, but due to deforestation the number have dwindled and due to lack of suitable habitat they enter old buildings."

The website described the tarantula as "colourful, fast and venomous".

The species is said to be related to a class of South American tarantula that includes the Goliath bird-eater, one of the world's largest spiders.

In other reports Mr Nanayakkara is quoted as saying none of the tarantulas found in Sri Lanka have bites that are deadly to humans. However, the Poecilotheria rajaei would be able to kill animals as large as mice, lizards and small birds and snakes.

A male member of the Poecilotheria rajaei species

Peter Kirk, who covered the discovery for the British Tarantula Society's journal, told Sky News: "Ranil has been working on these spiders since 2009 out in Sri Lanka and this is the first of what is thought to be a number of new species he has discovered in what was previously the inaccessible northern region of the island.

"It demonstrates that wildlife continues to survive whilst we are in the throes of conflict and that they can adapt to its changing environment - but also highlights that we risk destroying the habitats of species new to science and condemning them to extinction before they are even discovered."

Giant Tarantulas Reported in Missouri Area

Posted in reply to my message at the Georgia Bigfoot Society by Larry Hagedon: 'Reminds me of the two spiders my brother saw facing off in the Iowa, Missouri, Illinois tri state corners area many years ago. It was a wooded area and they were cutting some trees there for logs. He said he was hooking one up to drag it out and he saw two spiders the size of dinner plates facing off. He didnt want to kill them, and he had no way of capturing them alive, so he went on about his business. My brother never plays jokes like this one could be. He says he saw them, so he saw them. larry'