The blue mystery spider of Batley (Mary Howard)Hot on the many heels of the shrieking centipede and the ant-mimicking tiger beetle documented in the previous ShukerNature comes yet another anomalous arthropod. This time? It's a bright-blue, seven-legged spider!
The original info was forwarded to me by Fortean Times, for whom I am preparing a full account of this remarkable case, and I have since been in contact with the eyewitnesses themselves, but here are the principal facts - and the all-important photograph:
The photo was snapped by Mary Howard, a retired biology teacher, outside her home in Batley, W Yorkshire, one early evening in June 2009, where it was also seen by her daughter, Louise Howard. In basic shape and form, the spider resembles a wolf spider or even one of those familiar long-legged Tegenaria house spiders that we've all seen scuttling across the carpet suddenly or attempting to clamber out of the bath, except for this extraordinary blue colour.
So, what are the options regarding its identity?
Is it:
A non-native species;
A freak blue specimen of a native species;
A normal spider exposed to UV light when photographed, making it fluoresce blue (many spiders do this);
A normal spider that has inadvertently covered itself in some blue dye, paint, chalk, etc;
A normal spider that has been deliberately painted blue, and probably held in place by one leg with tweezers while this was done (if the spider pulled away and its leg snapped off, this option would also explain its seven-legged state);
A normal spider in a photograph in which the spider has been photoshopped blue?
Those, as Shakespeare never wrote, are the questions!
Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly welcomed!
Posts
hi mate , only me not knowing much of the info you have on it yet, my initial theory is that someones painted it with a spray. looking at the picture and assuming the spider was held by the missing leg and the spray was applied from the upper right of the picture,(anyone whose used a spray knows you have to move it in an arc around the subject to get an even cover otherwise you get missed spots that were shaded by higher areas.)looking at the lower legs youll notice black areas and deep into the joints youll notice missed areas as well. looking at a red kneed tarantula you can have colour variations through the legs but they are usually uniform to each leg whereas on this picture only a couple have black areas. some one must have been very careful and used powder in the spray or because most sprayable paints would sit on the skin and you'd see droplets of the propellent/paint mix on the tiny hairs of the spider.
ReplyDeletethats my initial conclusion until we have further info, although i do vaguely remember an artical once about certain species colouring being affected by variations in heat thats applied to them?
Disappointingly, it looks like the colour's topical to me - there appears to be some 'clagging' and matting-down of the leg and abdomen hairs, and patches that have been missed.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing acrylic paint, possibly even Games Workshop's Enchanted Blue.
I was intrigued to read this as I saw a spider of a very similar blue yesterday, also in Yorkshire!
ReplyDeleteI was in the process of removing some large pots near a garden shed in which the resident climbing plants had taken root. The plant pot disintegrated in the process and from the fragments ran a small (no more than 1cm), bright blue spider. Although I'd never seen such a colour morph I have no particular interest in spiders and assumed its pigmentation was due to being buried away in the depths of the soil. I rather wish I had kept it now.
Colin
Hi Karl.
ReplyDeleteIt's a spider that has been photoshopped blue, no question of it.
Thanks for all of the interesting and informative comments, everyone. From what 've read here, on my Facebook wall, and in various other emails and messages received, I personally favour the idea that the spider was deliberately painted blue and held by a leg while the paint was being applied, causing it, as it tried to pull away, to lose a leg. Certainly, examining the photo blown-up reveals matted setae (hairs) on the opisthosoma (spider abdominal section) and legs, which wouldn't have occurred were it merely a photoshoppd job. Neither would the blue pigment inconsistencies, revealing irregular brown/dark patches on various of the limbs.
ReplyDelete@Colin - What was the exact location within Yorkshire where you saw the blue spider, and are you certain that it was a spider, rather than, say, a glossy purple-blue beetle? I'd greatly welcome any further information that you could send me, either here on the blog or directly to me at my usual email address, karlshuker@aol.com Thanks very much.
I go with the painted blue while being held by one leg that snapped off. If it were a true 7 legged bug the 3 on that side would be spread out more to make up the gap.
ReplyDeleteOk, I don't know about this spider but in 1993 I returned
ReplyDeletehome from doing some errands, and pulled up
next to my husbands truck parked in the driveway. To
my horror, there say a bright turqoise blue spider which
had bright yellow markings on it. The spider was fairly
large and looked very different than the picture here. I was
intimidated by this spider and sat in my car looking at it
for quite some time. I have mentioned this to many people
over the years but nobody seems to know anything about
such a spider. I live in central Maine and have never seen
anything like it since. Very strange!
I would Think blue pigmentation would be possible as lobsters can have it but this is painted and a lost leg not naturally occuring as the pigmentation would not look the way it does
ReplyDeleteIsn't that the spider that made Spiderman?
ReplyDeleteCrap....probably lost a leg somewhere!!
ReplyDeleteBlue spiders are not that uncommon, in fact many spiders have blue markings. Its is also known that a spider will eat it's own legs if It can't get food, or was eaten off while mating.
ReplyDeletethay used chak from a chak line blue.
ReplyDeleteIts a Navi spider from Pandora!
ReplyDeleteI'm just wondering why anyone would torture a spider in this manner.
ReplyDeleteI did a blow-up of the image and it definitely appears to have been painted.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm not mistaken, you can also see some of the hairs on the spiders back sort of pasted by the paint to its body. Also there are many parts that were missed and the underside appears uncoloured.
Some of the colouring appears in blotches like when too much paint is applied.
Its the work of some sneaky kid ;-)
Maybe it was just having a bad day?
ReplyDeleteZooming in on it, it certainly appears painted, blue pigmentation seems believable...but blue hairs? I don't think so. Some sections are not blue, but dark as you'd expect. Cruel and twisted.
ReplyDeletekcuhC
as a collector of tarantulas it is common within the hobby to have blue spiders
ReplyDeleteWho said it's real? There is always the possibility that its a toy spider thats been painted and had the leg ripped off
ReplyDeleteWonder who the nasty cuss is to bother doing that to a creature.
ReplyDeleteSo no World of Warcraft fans then
ReplyDeleteLooks to me like the famous blue recluse or at least a brown recluse painted blue
So no World of Warcraft fans then
ReplyDeleteLooks to me like the famous blue recluse or at least a brown recluse painted blue
In Batley they mostly support Huddersfield Town - whose fans have track record in spray painting things blue:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.football-chat.net/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t13695.html
I bought a honda applause quite a number of years ago, i had had it around 2 weeks (brand new) when i noticed something crawl out of the airconditioning duct! this spider was around a large palm (minus the fingers) in diameter and bright orange with fury legs! it crawled across the dash fairly quickly while i was driving and retreated into my apposing air conditioning vent, i saw it a totall of 4 times over a period of around a year, i had my car checked when it was being serviced but they often laughed and said they couldnt see anything after the service was complete! not blue but still freaking scary!
ReplyDeleteWow! Good job you weren't arachnophobic, especially as you were driving at the time. Still, could have been worse - it might have been one of the dreaded vindscreen vipers! (groan!)
ReplyDeleteI wonder if anyone has considered an iridovirus infection. This is a common cause of blue colour in woodlice and many other invertebrates, and can be transmitted by eating infected tissue. Google 'blue woodlice' or in Dutch 'blauwe pissebedden' and you'll find many pictures.
ReplyDeleteIf the spider is collected, the theory can be tested by means of infecting other insects with the spider's blood.
Hi Louis,
ReplyDeleteYes, a mutual colleague, Terje Jonassen of Norway, alerted me to this phenomenon yesterday, sending me your paper on the blue craneflies and mentioning blue woodlice created by this means. I've been checking it all up since and I have found several online reports and photos of iridovirus-induced blue woodlice and also what may be an iridovirus-induced blue opilionid (harvestman), which, as an arachnid, would (if a genuine case of iridovirus-induced blue colouration) greatly increase the likelihood that the blue spiders that I've documented are also iridovirus-induced.
So if anyone reading this encounters a blue spider, please try and capture it, so that this theory can be tested. Thanks very much!