Giant Chicken-Eating Spider Discovered

Nature has a brief interview with Martin Nicholas, a water treatment plant salesman who moonlights as an expert spider hunter. Not content with discovering several new species, he travelled to Peru in search of the legendary Chicken-Eating spider, a gigantic arachnid capable of taking down a full-grown hen. What he found was a monster 10 inch black tarantula, possibly a new species. Martin says:

“It looks like when they go out at night as a group, they can catch and kill larger prey by working together.”

Cripes! I think I speak for us all when I say: “Nuke ‘em from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure”.

16 comments May 8th, 2007