Story:
Scientist Discovers a New Winged Spider.
Analysis:
The message comes with a picture of a newspaper clipping showing a spider with wings and says that a ‘scientist discovers winged spider’. Although the ‘winged spider’ appears real, it is not a genuine picture, the message is a hoax.
The picture of winged spider shown in the message is actually a manipulated image of one type of spider called Dolomedes spider. It is also called Fishing Spider and is generally seen in North Carolina. The picture is in fact taken from a website showing spider photos from North Carolina. See the original picture above, it was titled “Dolomedes sp. (Fishing Spider) – Durham, NC 9/23/07″, and holds a cockroach prey under its legs. Clearly, this is a normal, non-winged spider. It appears like some prankster added wings to this spider picture and edited the image to make it appear like a newspaper print, and this is most certainly for attention sake, or to scare people.
Therefore, the claim is a hoax, no scientist has discovered such winged spider, and such a winged spider that can fly is not known to exist. It should be understood that 6 legged creatures are generally insects, some of which can have wings, but the 8 legged creatures are arachnids, and do not have wings in general. But interestingly, there is such a creature called “winged spider”, the scientific name of which is Araneus albotriangulus (refer to the picture below). It is more commonly known as the orb weaver spider, but even these cannot fly. Their ‘wings’ are just decorative markings.
Mysterious hoax messages around spiders have been very common these days, the reason for which is this fascinating fear humans have for them.
Hoax or Fact:
Hoax.
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References:
North Carolina Spider Photos
Winged Spider – Araneus albotriangulus
Arachnid
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