Nature never ceases to amaze us with its imagination. So recently, photographs of an unusual haymaking spider living in Ecuador have become widespread on the Internet.
Many people who looked at these pictures did not even realize that they were looking at a spider, as the black muzzle of a "dog" with long standing ears, yellow dots of "eyes" and a black shiny "nose" attracted all attention.
The muzzle looked very nice and some later wrote that they thought it was the head of a flying fox or other fruit bat, whose muzzles really resemble those of a dog.
When users realized that the "dog's head" is a spider's body and is surrounded by huge long yellow limbs, they often experienced a mixed feeling of admiration and disgust, because many people are afraid of spiders (this is called arachnophobia).
Many did not believe what they saw and claimed that it was a fake from Photoshop or another photo editor.
It was later revealed that these pictures of a spider living in the jungle of Ecuador were taken back in 2017 by photographer Andreas Kai. Kai accidentally discovered a very rare species of haymaking spider and, like millions of users around the world, was very impressed with its dog-like body.
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The scientific name of this arthropod is Metagryne bicolumnata and, like all hay makers, this spider is completely harmless to humans, it does not have poisonous glands. In addition, it is very small in size, no more than a thumbnail.
It is curious that in English this spider is called the Bunny Harvestman.
This unusual and rare spider was described as a species back in 1963, but very little is still known about it due to its rarity and difficult to study.
Including it is not known why this spider needs such an unusual abdomen with "ears" or "horns".