Terrifying Spider Has a Head that Resembles a Dog

Again reaffirming some inherent arachnophobia present in most people, and a fascination with what people fear, a picture recently went viral of an odd looking arachnid with a head resembling that of a dog.

It was posted on Halloween, and has since spread across the Internet.

In the photo, the spider is camouflaged elegantly on a leaf, only really recognizable as a spider because it has eight long legs.

The spider has a brown head like a dog in the imagination of some people, with a pale yellow region of its body with what look like scales or bumps, with the yellow color fading into brown in its legs.

The odd thing about this spider is the fact that it has two pine cone looking things sticking out of its head, which could resemble dog ears, and the fact that two tiny yellow dots that look like cartoonish eyes are present on the face of the arachnid, coupled with a button nose looking thing with two tiny yellow dots that resemble nostrils might be.

If you look close, you’ll notice a little region of the spider’s face below the nose that resembles a canine as well, looks a little red at the bottom of its “face.”

People have been asking whether this was photoshopped or not, because as one article puts it, “unlike spiders which we are used to seeing – which usually have round, nondescript faces – this one has pointy ears and bright yellow eyes which peer out from its face.”

The image was posted to Twitter by a science writer named Ferris Jabr, giving credit to photographer and scientist Andreas Kay, and he captured the original series of photos, publishing them to Flickr.

In the caption of the image, it was explained first and foremost that it was not photoshopped. The post says the creature is an arachnid cousin of spiders, known as the bunny harvestman (Metagryne bicolumnata).

The bunny harvestman? That’s an incredible name for a creature. The post alluded to the fictional omen of death in Harry Potter, noting it resembled the Grim.

Kay photographed the arachnids in Ecuador in July, 2017. For some scale to understand its size, the leaf it is resting on is quite small, but its head could be spotted a mile away.

(Image credit: wallpaperup)

This arachnid is classified as a member of the Cosmetidae family, in the order of Opiliones. They are harmless, possessing no venom glands or anything of that nature.

Ecuador is also home to a number of other interesting creatures and plants.

The Galápagos Islands are a territory of Ecuador, and the mainland of the country is classified as one of seventeen megadiverse countries in the world in terms of biodiversity, according to Conservation International.

Per square kilometer, Ecuador is the most biodiverse country on the planet. They have over 1,600 species of bird, which constitutes 15% of all known bird species in the world, and 38 more endemic species in the Galápagos.

(Image credit: naturegalapagos)

Sadly, much of the Amazon rainforest has also been poisoned by oil exploitation, with billions of gallons of toxic, untreated wastes, crude oil, gas, and even mercury into the environment, causing what have been described as detrimental health effects in Amerindian people.

People need positive things to focus on? Watch some videos of nature or animals, or better yet go out into nature yourself.

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