The real story behind the Angolan witch spider

Angolan Witch spider as big as half a house, supposedly migrated from South America. HUGE!!! Eats dogs and cats, etc. Takes several bullets to kill it. This new species of spider has been terrifying facebookers this past month!





 Is it real or fake?

Origins: Just a glimpse of this photograph showing a huge Angolan witch spider — said to be so large that it preys on dogs and cats and requires several bullets to kill — is enough to send arachnophobes scrambling for a safe place to hide.

No need to worry, though; this image just a bit of digital fakery. There is no species of arachnid known as an "Angolan witch spider," and even the world's largest spiders aren't nearly as big as the one pictured above. The largest known spider species have a legspan of no more than about 12 inches and in repose will generally fit into the hand of an adult human male.

Multiple sources have repoorted that this picture of a wolf spider (below) was used in creating the image displayed above with the spider on the side of the house. Apparently, features were added, omitted and enhanced with image editing software.

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Real facts:

The world’s largest spinning spider discovered. The new species of giant spider is so big that it can eat birds and bats with its four-feet wide web.




The Spider is found in Madagascar and Africa, the growth of spider is more than four inches in diameter which is officially the world’s biggest web spinning spider.

The Spider is named Nephila Komaci. It has the quality of eating insects but it can also prey on small birds, bats and even lizards.

Not poisonous to humans but it could issue a nasty bite. Like many spiders, it is only the females that are the giants, with males up to five times smaller than their mates.

More than 41,000 spider species are known to science with about 400 – 500 new species added each year.