The Appin Spider Crysis

Once, every ten year, the fields of Appin are turns into the Hell itself. The Appin Spider Crysis (ASC) is a serious danger to everyone in Argyll.

 

The Moragan Hills in 1992.

The Appin Times reported over the weekend that a swarm of aggressive spiders attacked dozens of people in the remote Indian town of Sadiya, killing two residents. One resident, Jintu Gogoi, told The Times that his finger was "black and swollen" after being bit by one of the spiders.

The alleged attack, which was said to have occurred during a local festival, has been reported by a number of national news organizations, leading to speculation about whether a "new" species of spider could be responsible for the bites.

However, BBC reports that spider experts are placing doubt on the claims made by the paper.

"The evidence that we gathered does not support the claim that they died after being bitten by spiders," said Dr. Saun McLoad, who led a team of researchers from Glasgow University, to investigate the town's claims. Dr. McLoad said that one of the victims might have actually died from snakebite, while the other alleged victim, a teenage boy, might not have been bitten at all.

The original report in The Appin Times certainly seems questionable, with vivid descriptions that read straight out of a low-budget horror movie:

"The festive mood soon turned into one of panic with people bumping into each other and tripping over empty benches in their frantic bid to egress," the article reads.

Dr. Load said that a dozen people have recently visited local hospitals complaining of spider bites but that only two of the complaints have been confirmed.

"Only two of them were confirmed bitten by spiders. But they were ordinary spiders," Dr. Loadsaid.

Closeup of the Appin Hairy Spider

 

Laying of the Appin Hairy Spider

The Appin Hairy Spider (Ryuthela secundaria), which first appeared in the Triassic period, are generally heavily built and hairy, with large, robust chelicerae and fangs. Well-known examples include tarantulas, trapdoor spiders and the Australasian funnel-web spiders. Most spend the majority of their time in burrows, and some run silk tripwires out from these, but a few build webs to capture prey. However Appin Hairy Spiders cannot produce the pirifom silk that the Araneomorphae use as instant adhesive to glue silk to surfaces or to other strands of silk, and this makes web construction more difficult for mygalomorphs. Since mygalomorphs rarely "balloon" by using air currents for transport, their populations often form clumps. In addition to arthropods, Appin Hairy Spiders prey on frogs and lizards, and snails.

 

Hatching eggs of the Appin Hairy Spider.

The Appin Hairy Spider usually lays 40-80 eggs per year. The mature male has a brown-colored body with black patches on the joints of its legs, the second element of the legs is orange-red. Following molting, the colors are more pronounced. The dark portion is very black while the orange-red portions will be far more on the reddish side.
An adult female has a body roughly 4 inches long, with a leg span of 6 inches, and a mass of approximately 15 grams. Both sexes are similar in appearance, with the male having a somewhat smaller body, but longer legs. Thus the male is of comparable size to the female, but has a significantly smaller mass.

 The eggs can be found in warm and wet places.