Shouldn't Get So Large

Spiders just shouldn't get so large that they can straddle something made for human hands. Seriously, this spider has a potential leg span of 12 inches.

They're known as huntsman spiders, giant crab spiders, wood spiders, or rain spiders. I know them as brown-out-in-my-pants spider. Thankfully, they've already been assigned its scientific name (Sparassidae), because the name I use doesn't translate well into Latin.

Photo source: Skye Auer

Crocodilian Faces

Thought we could all use a nice spread of crocodilian faces. This way you can look in the mirror and get a nice shot in the arm of self confidence.

Photo source: Berry van Tuijl

Photo credit Angie

Photo credit Angie

Photo credit Nicholas Cheong

Charming Diminutiveness

Oh, little baby alligator snapping turtle. So charming in your diminutiveness , so endearing in your tinyhood. You'll grow to be massive. You'll wriggle you lure tongue and snap up fish. You'll be the dread of some pond or stream. In time, you'll even be able to snap off those fingers that are holding you. So much to look forward to.

Photo credit: Stephanie Velzy

Cricket Bottoms Up

This mantis looks almost coy, almost playful, with her head tilted and her antennae curled, as she devours the cricket. But really, does she need to eat it from the bottom up?I'm sure it's wishing that she'd start with its head first.

If I were taken down by a lion, I assume that it would at least have the courtesy of killing me before it began to eat me. Like me, I doubt this cricket wants to experience being eaten. But do mantises even eat the head? Maybe all the good stuff is in the abdomen and thorax, and the head is nothing by a jumble of chitin and mandibles. Or, is she saving the head for later, the best for last? Something with which to cleanse her mantoid palette?

Photo source: Rob

Using the Facilities

Usually when I get really scared, I feel an increased urge to ... use the facilities. But what happens when you're actually using the facilities, and a huntsman spider clambers up the bathroom wall a mere three feet from you? It's one of those cosmic paradoxes which for me threatens the Space-Time Continuum itself.

Thanks for the photo, Suzanne.

Cheshire Frog

A Cheshire frog looming out of the darkness on an overhead tree branch. Definitely more freaky than a Cheshire cat. Lewis Carroll probably made the right choice.

Britain's Biggest Crab

Photo source: DailyMail.co.uk

I've never seen a guy so eager to get his hands a boiling pot, and some butter and garlic.

Actually, this crab is safe and sound and on display in the National Sea Life Centre in Birmingham. This Japanese spider crab (Macrocheira kaempferi) is the largest ever seen in Britain. It's already got a claw-to-claw spread of 10 feet. and it's still growing.

Of course, all that size doesn't do it much good out of the water, where its weight is such that it can barely support itself. But in the deep it's a nimble, lethal predator.

Thanks for the article, Ida.

Temminckii

Behold the armored head of North America's largest turtle. The alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelys temminckii) weighs in on average at 100 kg (220 lbs). But back in 1937 a 403 lbs turtle was reportedly found in the Neosho River in Kansas.

This snapper gets its Latin name from Coenraad Jacob Temminck, a Dutch zoologist. Being able to stick my name to the likes of this monster would have been the greatest accomplishment of my professional life. As for me, well, I'll have to settle for all the docs and spreadsheets that have me listed as the 'author'.

Photo source: Ezra Freeman