A woman says she didn't think the spider she spotted while walking her dog on Vancouver Island was real - at first.
On April 24, Krysten Leigh shared a post of her recent encounter on Facebook, which included a photo of the rather unusual arachnid. She notes that it doesn’t look like the average spider in Victoria, and that she spotted the petite spider creature while walking in Langford.
"I was walking my dog in the morning and he was pulling on the leash really trying to get to something and when I looked over I actually had to look twice because I thought it was fake," Leigh tells Vancouver Is Awesome in an email."When I looked this big thick spider was standing there."
Leigh states that she was caught off guard by the spider because its body and its legs were so thick.
"I was so surprised because usually when you see a spider with a big body the legs are kind of thin but with this one the whole thing was thick," she notes.
"And when I saw the stripes I thought, “Ohh that doesn’t look like a normal spider!”
After showing the picture to her mother, Leigh contacted a pest control company to ensure the arachnid wasn't dangerous. She was told that it was a type of 'trapdoor spider' and that they, "aren’t dangerous and spend most of their life underground."
Regardless of how much of a threat the spider poses, Leigh, who resides on Vancouver Island, says that the encounter still freaks her out: "He was just so different looking compared to the average spider - in my opinion at least."
Claudia Copley, Royal BC Museum entomology collections manager, tells V.I.A. in an email that the spider is a female Pacific folding door spider (Antrodiaetus pacificus) (Family Antrodiaetidae), and that they are 'very cool.'
"Females do not often leave their burrow so they are not often seen even though this genus of spiders is known to be quite long-lived (because they are a tarantuloid, - a relative of tarantulas)," says Copley, who adds that they have a lifespan of up to 20 years.
During the fall, Copley notes that males leave their burrow in search of mates. As a result, sightings are more often reported during this time.
"This species ranges much further north along the coast of B.C. We have found it on Haida Gwaii, and it even still lives in the gardens here at the museum," she explains.
Copley adds that the spiders are found all the way south into the United Sates, and that the interior of B.C. has three different but related species.
As for their size, Copley emphasizes that these particular arachnids are not huge. She highlights that the object in the photo is a rock, not a shoe. For perspective, she says that, "The crack in the walkway gives a sense of scale - 5 cm."
And while they aren't seen regularly, Copley states that these spiders are not rare - they are just lying low.
If you do see one, she underscores: "They are definitely not dangerous."
