Terrifying Spider Looks Like It Has A Dog’s Head

As though spiders couldn’t get any more terrifying, a picture has emerged of a bizarre-looking arachnid which appears to have a dog’s head.

The picture was fittingly posted on social media on Halloween (October 31) and has understandably caused concern amongst quite a few people.

The arachnid sits perched on a leaf and is only recognisable as such because of its eight legs, which tower above its body.

However, people have been questioning whether the image is photoshopped due to the shape and overall appearance of the arachnid’s head.

Because 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.

Science writer Ferris Jabr shared the image to his Twitter, crediting scientist and photographer Andreas Kay, who took the original series of photos and published them to his Flickr.

He captioned the image:

This is not a photoshopped image. This is a real photo of an actual living arachnid, a cousin of spiders, called the bunny harvestman (Metagryne bicolumnata). But clearly it should be called THE GRIM cc @jk_rowling

Photo by Andreas Kay

Alluding to the fact that the creature strongly resembled the omen of death in Harry Potter, The Grim, Jabr emphasised the terrifying nature of the arachnid.

And it appears he summarised most of his follower’s thoughts when they saw the picture for the first time:

According to IFL Science! the pictures were taken by Andreas Kay just a little over a year ago in Ecuador in July 2017. The creature is noticeably small in comparison to the leaf it is perched on, but its unique looking head can be spotted immediately.

Resembling a dog, the arachnid has pointed ears, bright yellow eyes and even a snout-looking nose – all of which make it stand out from its other spider relatives.

Some have commented that it also resembles a bunny due to its long, pointed ears, but I’ll be honest with you – all I’m seeing is a dog, or maybe even a wolf.

According to Rumble, the creature belongs to the Cosmetidae family, in the order of Opiliones. These are more commonly known as Harvestmen or daddy longlegs.

Now, I don’t know about you but I’ve been trapped in a confined space with a daddy longlegs before and it is not an experience I wish to repeat, especially not if it has the head of a dog. Nope. No thank you.

Although maybe I’m worrying for nothing, because Rumble went on to say that these creatures don’t have venom glands and as such are ‘absolutely harmless’. I’m still not going to take my chances though…

I wouldn’t go as far as one man though, who set his parents’ house on fire in an attempt to kill some spiders which had invaded the home.

You can check out the disaster below:

The man, from Fresno, California, was house-sitting for his parents on October 23 at their home in the Woodward Lake housing development when he spotted the black widow spiders, ABC11 report.

Yep, take a moment to let that sink in. It wasn’t even his house that he managed to set fire to – it was his poor, unsuspecting parents’.

As soon as he saw the spiders, he knew that he had to act and spotted a blowtorch which he assumed would kill the spiders in a quick and efficient way.

However, he failed to take into account that the blowtorch would most likely not only set the spiders on fire, but also his surroundings.

So as soon as he fired his weapon of choice up – you guessed it – the house went up in flames along with the spiders.

Luckily, the man made it out of the house in time to call the fire department and no one was injured as a result.

I mean, I’m glad no one was injured but maybe he’ll be able to come up with a less disastrous solution to getting rid of spiders in the future.

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