Venomous spider's camouflage makes it almost impossible to spot can you see it? ·

17 Jun 2024, 00:00

A VENOMOUS spider with camouflage so convincing that it's "almost impossible" to see has left experts dazzled.

The arachnid revealed itself to hiker Sarah Jolly deep in the Australian bush when it moved while she and her friends were building a rock wall.

It was so well camouflaged, that when she pointed it out to her friend, Tricia Stack, Sarah had to convince her it wasn't just a stick.

"They called me to come over with the phone camera," Tricia, 67, said. "When I got there it was still and sitting on a rock."

"I even said to her, 'it is not a spider - it looks like a stick.'

"She and her husband were there and they said 'look closely, it has legs'."

It was only when Tricia looked closely at a photo of the scene that she spotted the arachnid's legs outlined with its body.

In Tricia's images, the spider appears to be no more than a snapped-off branch.

It's a type of camouflage that even has the experts amazed.

Dr Lizzy Lowe from Macquarie University said the spider was an orb-weaver, most likely of the acroaspis genus.

The arachnids are venomous but rarely bite. The bite and injected venom is comparable to that of a bee sting.

Orb-weavers are known to imitate twigs to avoid predation, but Dr Lowe said she had "never seen any quite like this one".

"They're very good at it, I find them almost impossible to see unless they move," she said.

"I've never seen one with a top like a broken-off twig before."

Here are seven of the most deadly creatures...

The box jellyfish is widely regarded to be the most posionous animal in the world and contians a toxin that can cause heart attacks
Cobras, typically found in the jungles of India and China, can spit a venom which can result in death in a very short space of time and just 7ml of their venom is enough to kill 20 humans
The marbled cone snail is a sea creature that can release venom so toxic it can result in vision loss, respiratory failure, muscle paralysis and eventually death and, to make things worse, there is no anti-venom available
Posion dart frogs are small and brightly coloured but have glands containing a toxin that blocks nerve signals to muscles, causing paralysis and death
Puffer fish are considered to be a dangerous delicacy because some of their anatomy contains a hazardous toxin which, if ingested in a large quantity, can cause convulsions, paralysis, cardiac arrhythmia, and ultimately death
The Brazillian wandering spider, also known as the ‘banana spider’, has venom that is so high in serotonin it can paralyse and kill
Death stalker scorpions have a fitting name as enough venom from one can cause a lot of pain and respiratory failure

The spider was encountered in the Australian bush, roughly six miles outside of Torrington, a small village in New South Wales.

Tricia is grateful for the one-of-a-kind encounter.

"When the legs were seen I was blown away," she said. "I knew it was something special."

"I just feel so privileged to have seen such a thing."

Gigantic funnel-web spider dubbed 'The Rock' because he's TWICE the normal size

Venomous spider's camouflage makes it almost impossible to spot can you see it?