China’s People’s Daily has released footage of a small green spider with a human-like face painted across its rear, with the ‘face’ complete with eyes, a nose, a smiling mouth, eyebrows, and even what looks like a receding hairline.
Has spiderman been found? This spider with a humanlike face on its back was found at a home in C China's Hunan and has gone viral on Chinese social media. Do you know its species? pic.twitter.com/0iU6qaEheS
— People's Daily, China (@PDChina) 16 июля 2019 г.
The video received tens of thousands of hits on Twitter, and spreading quickly to other platforms; it was filmed by a woman named Li at her home in Yuangjiang, a city in China’s Hunan province.
The footage has intrigued users, one of whom compared the face to that in Norwegian expressionist artist Edvard Munch’s famous painting ‘The Scream’, with other warning that it could be Spiderman’s arch nemesis Venom, or joking that this was a case for the FBI’s Alien Department.
— Jonn Mc (@Jonn__Mc) 17 июля 2019 г.
This not Spiderman , this is VENOM
— M.🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿 (@MahdiSahel1) 16 июля 2019 г.
Suggest you contact US FBI Alien Departement rofl Beautiful animal
— Habibi2525⚖️⏳🇪🇸 (@Habibi25251) 16 июля 2019 г.
One user asked if the footage indicated that spiders were “mutating.” “It’s like something sneaked out of Area 51,” another wrote.
spiders are mutating?
— @housingformany (@housingformany) 16 июля 2019 г.
It's like something sneaked out of area 51 https://t.co/ar7korijas
— Umar Salim (@pharuq_salim) 16 июля 2019 г.
One helpful user appeared to solve the mystery, saying the spider looked like a “harmless thomisid” known as ebrechtella tricuspidata, a species of crab spiders living across wide swathes of Asia, Russia, the Caucasus, Turkey and Europe, and typically inhabiting meadows and the edges of forests in search of prey.
Happy to solve the mystery here. This looks like the harmless thomisid, Ebrechtella tricuspidata. Pic from Yaginuma, 1986. @DrRichJP is lways happy to help with spider facts! 😄🕷️ #LoveSpiders #EverySpiderMatters #CoolCrabSpider pic.twitter.com/a9rh5dyZsM
— Richard J. Pearce (@DrRichJP) 18 июля 2019 г.
A few Spider-Man nerds got sidetracked, however, starting a debate about whether it was appropriate to label the arachnid a true spider man.
i think they chose spiderman cuz just a play on words . Spider-man. Spider with man's face. Chill bro.
— Leeeeaaahhhh (@whatstheteagurl) 16 июля 2019 г.
