A mother was left stunned after discovering a giant huntsman spider inside her son’s toy.
Brooke Thorpe from Tasmania, an island state of Australia, was in for a big shock when her two-year-old nephew brought her a toy truck to play with.
After the mother accepted the toy her nephew wanted to play with, the pair lifted the cargo bed only to find a massive critter hiding underneath.
As seen in the photos taken by Thorpe after her discovery, the huntsman appears to be guarding a large egg sac which likely contains hundreds of baby spiders – awesome!
According to Dr Robert Raven, who works as an arachnologist, some 100 to 200 infant spiders must have been in the sac at the time of the discovery.
“The mother spider is holding onto the egg to feel if there is any activity inside. The egg is still white, so she just laid them and the hundreds of babies are still developing,” the expert explained.
“The mother spins a bed of silk, then puts the eggs onto the bed and spins another layer outside. She will stay with her eggs for around two to three weeks.”
Following her find, the Tasmanian mom confirmed that the family would be taking good care of the mother spider. She also insisted that her four-year-old son was “pretty happy with his cool find.”
“We have her in a safe spot and once she’s finished, my son can have his toy back,” the mother said.
Meanwhile, Dr Raven urged people who come across a similar sight not to disturb the mother spider until her little ones have hatched.
He also suggested that the small air pocket underneath the toy truck’s cargo bed was an ideal hiding spot for the huntsman.
“Spiders tend to lay in protected zones like behind sofas when there is a lot of windy weather. But the inside of the plastic truck has a pocket of limited airflow to protect the mum and her egg,” Dr Raven said.
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