OMG
This Will Make You Think Twice Before Grabbing a Twig Ever Again
“This…this is what my nightmares are made of!” That’s what one Reddit user wrote after seeing the photo of a Dolophones turrigera, a.k.a. “Wrap-around spider.”
The eight-legged creature, which is commonly found in grasslands, woodlands, and gardens, was seen in the Rotary Rainforest Reserve in Lismore, New South Wales.
And it is camouflaged to look like a twig!
You have to look closely to see the spider’s outline.
Dolophones turrigera is an atypically-shaped, gray-brown arachnid with a cone-shaped body. Brown ornate plates can be seen on the surface of its abdomen, and these help enhance the spider’s twig-like appearance. Each plate or disc has a slit or line at the center. It also has a turret on the upper surface of its abdomen.
This creepy crawler has a concave underside, which allows it to wrap itself around twigs or branches during the day to hide from predators such as wasps and birds. At night, it builds an orb-like web vertically between two trees. The web is taken down before morning.
Overall, a Wrap-around spider’s color and appearance provide a great camouflage when it’s resting on a twig.
This species is typically small. The size of an adult female is approximately 8mm while the male is only 4-5mm. The Dolophones turrigera resembles other Dolophones species such as the Dolophones conifera.
The photo of the Wrap-around spider that was posted on Reddit has elicited squeamish responses from several users.
Another Reddit user wrote: “This is one of the craziest looking spiders ever. We are always charmed and amused with your wonderful submissions from down under.”
Well, arachnophobes might think twice before grabbing a twig from now on. They do bite. Fortunately, though, they’re harmless.
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