Not content with hiding in boxes of bananas, lurking creepily in dark corners and trying to sink their fangs into sweet, sweet human flesh, spiders are now devouring FISH.
Yup, and what’s more size is no object to the large, semi-acquatic pisaurid spiders of the genera Dolomedes and Nilus (‘fishing spiders’), who are happy to take on prey more than twice as big as they are.
The unnerving research was gathered by Martin Nyffeler from the University of Basel in Switzerland and Bradley Pusey, from the University of Western Australia and published in the science journal Plos One.
Nom nom, pass the chips
And it’s not some exotic occurrence none of us have to worry about ever witnessing – these arachnids are demonstrating pescatarian tastes on every continent except Antarctica.
Fish-eating spiders tend to live in freshwater environments like ponds and wetlands. Some can even skim, dive and walk on the water’s surface.
Pusey told Live Science: “They just throw themselves down into the water to latch onto them.
“From the records that we’ve reviewed they then usually just kill their prey with a bite at the base of the neck.
“It can take many minutes for the fish to die, and it is probably safer for the spider to haul it out of the water to aid in handling and reduce the potential for escape.”
One way ticket to Antarctica, please.