Welcome to another edition of “bugs that I’m really glad aren’t gigantic”. Today’s focus? The Net-Casting Spider.

In a previous post, we met Spike, the Silent Spiny Katydid, who looked pretty scary, but in reality his spikes were worse than his strikes. But the Net-Casting Spider is a whole other ball game…

You’re out camping in the wilderness one night. You’ve spent the day hiking and are absolutely exhausted. You clamber into your tent and are immediately engulfed by slumber.

Around 3am, you wake up – nature calls. You stumble out of the tent and wander, half-dazed, towards the nearest tree. It’s silent. Perhaps a little too silent.

You tilt your head back and appreciate the innumerable twinkling stars shining back at you.

But something else catches your eye, also shining in the dim moonlight.

What is that? Some kind of mesh? Some sort of… net?

Your brain deciphers the problem. But it’s too late.

In a fraction of a second, you’re engulfed. The spider drops the net down on all sides, and then scoops you up from your feet. It has already begun to wrap you up and constrict you before you can let out a scream. You feel its fangs pierce your skin.

All you can do now is pray that the venom kills you before the spider begins to devour you.

…

Wow. Okay. Um. Got a bit carried away there. While this is the actual fate of countless bugs every night, I cannot stress enough that the Net-Casting Spider is perfectly harmless to humans.

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Net-Casting Spider (Deinopis sp.), Barron Falls, Australia