An Australian reptile park is seeking the identity of an anonymous donor who mailed in the “BIGGEST” spider of its kind, with fangs powerful enough to “bite through a human fingernail.”
The funnel web spider has been named “Megaspider,” according to a press statement from the Australian Reptile Park. While normal funnel spiders are between 1 and 5 centimeters, the Megaspider, which is described as being the biggest known spider of its kind, measures in at about 8 centimeters and has fangs approximately 2 centimeters lengthwise.
“She is unusually large, and if we can get the public to hand in more spiders like her, it will only result in more lives being saved due to the huge amount of venom they can produce,” said Michael Tate, the education officer for the Australian Reptile Park. “We are really keen to find out where she came from in hopes to find more MASSIVE spiders like her.”
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Tate expressed his fascination with the spider by adding that in his “30+ years at the Park,” he had never come across a funnel web spider “this big.”
Through public donations, the park takes the spider venom from the funnel web spiders, milking them “weekly,” according to the statement. Venom once milked is then sent over to Seqirus, a pharmaceutical company, in Melbourne, where it is crafted into a “lifesaving antivenom.”
Megaspider arrived at the park through a collection drop-off and was in a Tupperware container. The container contained no details about where it may have come from.
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To date, the venom program has saved more than 25,000 lives since its establishment in the 1950s and is “estimated to save up to 300 Australian lives per year.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Australian Reptile Park for a comment but did not receive a response.
