This South American tarantula holds the record for world’s largest spider. Other spiders might have longer legs, but T. blondi‘s large body means its overall weight can reach 6 ounces (170 grams).
Commonly known as the Goliath birdeater due to an 18th-century engraving showing another member of the tarantula family eating a hummingbird—which gave the entire Theraphosa genus the nickname of “bird eaters”—the gargantuan spider is not quite as menacing as it might seem - “They are general predators, and if they run into other vertebrates like a small mouse or lizard, they can eat those, too,” Hormiga says.
