The Real Stories Behind The World's Largest Spiders

On any given day, you could accidentally stumble into any one of almost 50,000 species of spider. And while most of them are tiny little creeps who won't do much more than give you a slight scare and a face full of web, there are a few spiders so big and buff that they'll probably ruin your whole week.

Here are the top ten largest spiders in the world today.

Not all spiders are created equal, even within the Golden Silk Orb Weaver family. Our horrifying tale of web-spinning weirdos begins with the Nephila komaci. Females of this species have a leg span of up to 5 inches, or roughly the diameter of a chocolate chip cookie that you'd never, ever want to touch again.

The first live, supersized Golden Silk Orb Weaver wasn't officially discovered until 2007, despite unidentified specimens showing up in museum collections since the year 2000. In addition to being among the top ten biggest spiders alive today, it's also one of the rarest spiders in the world, and might already be critically endangered. Only three live specimens have ever been found in a single forest in Tembe Elephant Park in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and those spiders were found in' 3-foot-wide webs. Rest easy, though — this is the largest known spider that actually spins a web. The rest just conspire under your bed with the monsters, waiting for you.

Why the name komaci? The spider was named after the dear, departed best friend of the arachnologist who found the spider. So if you ever want something terrifying to be named after you, go make friends with a spider scientist.

Watch the video for more about The Real Stories Behind The World's Largest Spiders!

#Spiders

Golden Silk Orb Weaver | 0:24
Desertas Wolf Spider | 1:33
Cerbalus aravensis | 2:23
Giant camel spider | 3:18
Brazilian Wandering Spider | 4:20
Colombian giant redleg | 5:20
Poecilotheria rajaei | 6:03
Hercules baboon spider | 6:52
Brazilian salmon pink birdeater | 7:38
Goliath birdeater | 8:27
Giant huntsman spider | 9:05

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