RUFFED CAT REVELATIONS - LESSER-KNOWN MEXICAN MYSTERY CATS, PART 1 (OF 3)

 

Reconstruction of the possible appearance in life of Mexico's mysterious ruffed cat (created by me using Grok X1)

When cryptozoologists think of Mexican mystery cats, the example that always comes instantly to mind is the onza – that elusive gracile enigma that may simply be  a bona fide puma, taxonomically speaking, or may not be at all, because the controversy regarding its taxonomic status is still far from resolved (click here to read my detailed ShukerNature article on this subject, and check out my definitive book on feline cryptids, Mystery Cats of the World Revisited, for additional information).

However, it is by no means the only Mexican feline cryptid – I was aware of three others, but earlier this year Mexican palaeo-artist and cryptozoological enthusiast Hodari Nundu, who is also a longstanding friend of mine on Facebook, presented on his FB page some information regarding several additional ones. Not only that, he also prepared a series of exquisite full-colour illustrations of some of these creatures, and has now very kindly permitted me to include them in my exclusive coverage here on ShukerNature of his home country's fascinating diversity of lesser-known feline cryptids – thanks very much Hodari!

Having spent a very productive Christmas Day morning yesterday writing this article (living alone with no family any more, I enjoy Christmas in my own way, by doing what gives me pleasure and keeps my mind occupied, which is writing), its final sizeable word count persuaded me that it would be better served split into three separate, reader-friendly parts rather than presented as a single decidedly lengthy read. So that's what I've done. Herewith, therefore, is Part 1 (with Parts 2 and 3 following later this week), which I have devoted entirely to what may sound somewhat paradoxical – the best-known of these lesser-known Mexican mystery cats. Namely, the ruffed cat.

 

THE RUFFED CAT

I first documented this hitherto obscure Mexican mystery cat in my very first book, Mystery Cats of the World (1989), but expanded my coverage of it three decades later in that book's updated, greatly-enlarged second edition, the afore-mentioned Mystery Cats of the World Revisited. Here is what I wrote about it there:

The onza may still share Mexico with one other mystery felid. To my knowledge, however, this second crypto-cat's existence is based solely upon a single account, written by the American zoologist, veteran cryptozoologist, and popular writer Ivan T. Sanderson in the form of an article published in April 1973 by Pursuit - the official periodical of the Society for the Investigation of The Unexplained (SITU), which Sanderson founded. In his article, no name was allocated to the creature, but for reasons that will soon become evident, I shall refer to it here as the ruffed cat.

During 1940, travelling alone through Mexico on a mammalogical collecting trip, Sanderson arrived at an unnamed mountain settlement in the state of Nayarit's Sierra mountains. These are totally separated from the neighbouring Sierra Madre Occidentale ranges, and possess their own distinctive flora and fauna. At this settlement, a few locals spoke Spanish, and Sanderson let it be known that he was seeking specimens of a particular form of squirrel. The locals promised to obtain some for him, and in the meantime they brought along a number of skins of other mammals, in the hope of selling these to him too.

Amongst them was a large and very tough skin of a most unusual cat. The skin measured just over 6 ft from nose-tip to tail-base, with a further l.5 ft constituting its relatively short tail. Of course, it is difficult to say how closely these measurements reflected this cat's actual length when alive, because it would be virtually impossible to ascertain how much the skin had stretched or shrunk during drying. Intriguingly (in view of the onza), Sanderson noted: "The legs appeared to have been rather long compared to, say, a house-cat or a puma". The paws were still attached to the skin and were very large, well-furred, and splayed, with most of them still possessing their claws, which were bright yellow in colour and very clearly retractile. The cat's face was short (again like the onza).

The cat's pelage was firm dorsally, soft ventrally, and predominantly brown in colour. The head and shoulders lacked markings, but the flanks and upper limbs bore a series of wavy stripes in alternate light and dark shades of brown, whereas the lower limbs were very dark brown in colour, almost approaching black. The ridge of the spine running along its back was also dark brown, and (as far as Sanderson could recall) so too was the tail.

By far the most outstanding feature of the skin, however, was that the hairs sited just behind its shoulders appeared to grow forward to yield a large ruff encircling the neck and covering the ears from above and behind.

 

Artistic representation of the ruffed cat (© owner of this illustration is unknown to me despite searching online, but I found the illustration itself here on the Cryptid Wiki website, where it is attributed to FreakingNews.com – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis only for educational/review purposes only)

Sanderson stated that he bought this skin, and another smaller pelt of this same strange cat form that was in poorer condition but with sharper stripes. Together with other mammal skins that he bought, these felid pelts (which apparently cost a lot more than any of the others) were sewn up in several layers of sacking, and were finally stored in the government jail of Belize, which Sanderson was using as a base.

Tragically, however, during a subsequent trip the jail was lashed by a severe hurricane and, being at sea-level, was completely flooded out. As a result, everything not in bottles was totally ruined, including the skins.

This is a most compelling, but, sadly, rather intangible affair, because there is so little in the way of hard facts that can be followed up. The area itself is unnamed; the skins are lost; and Ivan Sanderson, who travelled there alone and hence was the only named eyewitness to them, can no longer be questioned, as he passed away in 1973. The only hope is the possible existence still of the jail - perhaps, if it does survive, records regarding the skins may too, which could add some details to the account left behind by Sanderson.

 

A third ruffed cat representation (created by me using Grok X1)

What could these mystery cats have been? Lynxes have relatively long legs and short tail, large paws, and thick fur around the neck, which can look a little like a ruff, but no lynx possesses anything remotely as extensive as the ruff described by Sanderson for the Mexican ruffed cat. Moreover, as a trained zoologist and a mammal collector, Sanderson would surely have compared its skins specifically with lynxes if they had appeared comparable with such. Instead, the detailed description that he gave does not fit that of any known felid.

The only sequel that I know of to this sorry saga is that Sanderson claimed that he later saw another skin of this very distinctive cat form on sale at a tourist store in the big market at Colima, situated at the south end of Nayarit's mountain block. Regrettably, however, the price that its owner was asking was far beyond what Sanderson could afford.

It would seem that the only way to follow up any aspect relating to the Mexican ruffed cat is to do what Sanderson suggested at the end of his article:

"…pay a visit to the market in Colima. They may still have unknown cat skins for sale."

They may indeed.

Since the publication of the present book's original edition in 1989, two additional snippets of information that may have possible relevance to the ruffed cat saga have come to my attention. The first of these was a brief but tantalising paragraph in Harold T. Wilkins's book Secret Cities of Old South America (1952):

"At Atitlan, in Guatemala, is another monstrosity carved on a big boulder. It takes the form of a cat with a sort of ruff at his throat, which points to the east. On top of the boulder is a basin, but what purpose this cavity served, unless to hold a human victim's sacrificial blood, is unknown."

Guatemala is of course situated immediately to the south of Mexico, and, indeed, only separated from it as an independent nation in its own right during the early 1800s. Consequently, it would not be implausible if the ruffed cat had once existed in Guatemala as well as in modern-day Mexico.

The second, related item is the following email posted on the cz@onelist.com cryptozoology discussion group by CFZ founder Jonathan Downes on 1 June 1998:

"I think that there is still evidence for there being a new and undiscovered species of large felid in Mexico. Across Mexico City, for example, there are a number of pieces of stylised statuary which appear to show a puma like animal with a brushlike mane like a punk-rocker's Mohican! This animal seems to be a well known archetype within the Mexican culture."

A mystery Mohican cat from Mexico – I like the sound of that!

In addition, on 6 June 2017 Hodari posted on my FB page the following thought-provoking information, plus two photos of the sculpture in question:

This is an Aztec "cuauhxicalli", a stone recipient meant to receive the heart of human sacrifices. This piece is from the Anthropology and History Museum at Mexico City. The curious thing about it is that, even though it is labelled as depicting a jaguar, it has two unusual traits that would suggest otherwise. For starters, it doesn't have any spots, which the Aztec were careful to etch in most jaguar representations. Also, there's that strange ruff on its cheeks, more reminiscent of a tiger or lynx than a jaguar. Cougars lack spots as adults but they don't have anything resembling this ruff. It can't be a bobcat because it has long tail and small round ears. So what is it? A fantastical creature, product of mixing jaguar, puma and bobcat features? Or maybe something else? A tiger? A surviving American lion? Unknown felid? I thought you'd find it interesting.

 

The two photos of the above-described Aztec cuauhxicalli shaped like a mysterious ruffed cat (© Hodari Nundu/Anthropology and History Museum, Mexico City – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

I certainly do find it interesting. Although its ruff is seemingly less pronounced than that of the skins procured by Sanderson (and its tail possibly longer), this Aztec-sculpted creature certainly doesn't correspond to any currently-known Mexican felid, as noted by Hodari, and is yet another example, therefore, of a mystifying cat from this country that sports a very noticeable ruff.

But where is the mystifying ruffed cat today? I know of not a single modern-day report of a living cat fitting its instantly-recognisable description.

How ironic it would be if the skins encountered by Sanderson were from the very last representatives of a felid so distinctive, and, seemingly, so greatly feared too, that in ages past humans had been sacrificed to a graven image of it, but which had subsequently slipped into extinction before the modern scientific world had even had time to acknowledge its existence. From deity to deceased, in just a few centuries?

 

Be sure to check out Parts 2 and 3 of this article, in which I document no fewer than six additional feline cryptids of the lesser-known Mexican variety, when I post them on ShukerNature later this week.

 

The two editions of my Mystery Cats of the World book (© Dr Karl Shuker/Robert Hale Limited/Coachwhip Publications)

 

 

THE AHOOL AND THE OLITIAU – GIANT MYSTERY BATS ON THE WING?

Photograph of hammer-headed bat currently doing the online rounds on social media (© owner presently unknown to me – reproduced here in a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational, review purposes only)

During the past couple of days, several internet friends and colleagues have independently brought the above photograph to my attention, asking me whether the creature portrayed in it is real or photoshopped. I can confirm that it is indeed real – it is a specimen of tropical Africa's hammer-headed bat – but due to the optical illusion of forced perspective, i.e. caused by it being positioned much closer to the camera than is the person holding it, this very distinctive-looking bat appears much bigger than it really is.

Nevertheless, seeing this photograph reminds me of what may be some genuinely giant mystery bats, and regarding one of which the hammer-headed bat has indeed been considered as a possible explanation – so here they are.

Taxiderm specimen of a hammer-headed bat (© Dr Karl Shuker)

Native to New Guinea and the Bismark Archipelago, the world's largest known species of modern-day bat is the Bismark fruit bat Pteropus neohibernicus, which sports an extremely impressive wingspan of up to approximately 5.5 ft, and there are several other fruit bat species with sizeable spans too. Moreover, quoting from the third (most recent) edition of the late Gerald L. Wood's still-invaluable source of animal superlatives The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats:

According to Peterson (1964)* a huge example of P. neohibernicus from New Guinea preserved in the American Museum of Natural History, New York, has a head and body length of 455 mm 17.9 in and a span of 1.65 m 5 ft 5 in. He thinks that some unmeasured specimens may reach 183 m 6 ft, but this figure is unconfirmed.

*Peterson (1964) = Russell F. Peterson, Silently, By Night (McGraw-Hill: New York, 1964), an authoritative book on the natural history of bats, a copy of which I own.

However, the cryptozoological chronicles contain details concerning at least two types of giant mystery bats whose wingspan is claimed to be twice as big as the above!

Famous vintage photo of a fruit bat (species unnamed) with a very impressive wingspan (originally © Otto Webb, now public domain? – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial, Fair Use basis for educational, review purposes only)

The secluded river valleys of western Java in Indonesia are reputedly home to one of these - an enormous but very elusive bat known to the local people as the ahool. It derives its name from the sound of its unmistakeable cry, which it is said to utter three times in succession while on the wing at night.

When questioned by interested Westerners, the locals provide consistent descriptions of the ahool. It has a monkey-like head and flattened humanoid face, a body as big as a one-year-old child's, and a massive 12-ft wingspan. It feeds principally upon large fishes that it snatches from underneath stones on river beds, but is occasionally encountered crouching on the forest floor, whereupon its feet are said to point backward. This last-mentioned feature may initially sound bizarre and implausible, but in reality it actually provides support for believing the remainder of their description, because as bat experts will readily testify, bats' feet do point backwards. Even when hanging upside-down from a branch, a bat wraps its feet around the rear portion of the branch, with its feet curling towards the observer, instead of away from him.

Does a giant bat, or bat-like cryptid, still awaiting scientific discovery explain reports of the ahool? (© Dr Karl Shuker)

One of the most interesting encounters with an ahool comes not from an eyewitness but rather an 'earwitness' (whose testimony was first documented by American cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson in a number of publications). The son of an eminent zoologist, naturalist Dr Ernst Bartels had spent much of his early life in Java, and was well-acquainted with the cries of all of the island's fauna. He was also familiar with the local Sundanese testimony concerning the ahool, but had remained sceptical – until one evening in 1927.

At around 11.30 pm, Dr Bartels had been lying awake in bed inside his thatched house near western Java's Tjidjenkol River, listening to the nocturnal insects' incessant orchestra of noises, when suddenly, from directly overhead, he heard a single loud, clear cry – "A-hool!". A few moments later, he heard it again, but further away now. Immediately, he jumped out of bed, grabbed his torch, and raced outside in the direction of the cry, whereupon he heard it again, for a third and final time, floating back to him from a considerable distance downstream. He stood there, totally transfixed, not because he didn't know what had made this unique triple cry, but rather because he did!

An olitiau encounter (© William M. Rebsamen)

A mystery bat of equally dramatic dimensions has also been encountered in Cameroon, West Africa, and by two very experienced scientific observer, as now described here.

 

While participating in the famous Percy Sladen Expedition of 1932, the afore-mentioned Ivan T. Sanderson and fellow animal-collector Gerald Russell had been wading down a stream in Cameroon's Assumbo Mountains one evening in search of tortoises to collect when abruptly a jet-black creature with enormous wings and a flattened monkey-like face flew out of the darkness and directly towards Sanderson, its lower jaw hanging down, revealing an abundance of large white teeth.

 

 

Is this what the olitiau looks like? (created by me using Magic Studio)

Sanderson instinctively ducked, then he and Russell fired a number of shots in the direction of this terrifying apparition, but it merely wheeled out of range and vanished back into the darkness, its wings cutting through the still air with a loud hissing sound. The two men agreed that its wingspan was at least 12 ft, and it seemed to have been jet-black in colour.

 

When they told the local hunters back at their camp what had happened, the hunters were all terrified – so much so that after informing the naturalists that their would-be attacker was known as the olitiau, they all fled from the camp!

Exquisite 19^th-Century engraving of the hammer-headed bat (public domain)

Sceptics later sought to identify the olitiau as a grotesque species of fruit bat known as the hammer-headed bat Hypsignathus monstrosus. As its name reveals, however, the head and face of this species is extremely long and swollen – wholly dissimilar from the flattened, monkey-like face specifically described by Sanderson and Russell.

A giant bat-like entity has also been reported from Ghana, where it is known as the sasabonsam. In 1939, a report of a dead specimen was published in the West African Review journal, together with a photograph of an alleged carving of one such beast, which depicted it with relatively short wings and a bearded, humanoid face.

Sketch based upon the above-mentioned photograph of an alleged carving of a sasabonsam (© Dr Karl Shuker)

There are two suborders of bats – the mega-bats (constituting the fruit bats), which include most of the largest species; and the micro-bats (constituting all of the other bats), many of which are much smaller. Consequently, we might expect bats with 12-ft wingspans to be more closely allied to the mega-bats than to the micro-bats. In reality, however, the reverse may well be true.

The flattened monkey or humanoid face of the ahool and the olitiau is particularly interesting, because this is very different from the long-muzzled, distinctly fox-like faces of the fruit bats (hence their alternative name of flying fox), but similar to those of many micro-bats. How extraordinary and zoologically iconoclastic it would be if the world's largest bat species ultimately proved not to be mega-bats but micro-bats!

The flap-ornamented but still unequivocally flat face of a micro-bat – namely, the Antillean ghost-faced bat Mormoops blainvillii (public domain)

Finally: several striking photographs of people holding seemingly enormous bats via their outstretched wings can be readily accessed on the internet. However, close examination of these reveals that in each instance the bat – invariably a fruit bat, some species of which are already fairly large – is being held much closer to the camera than the person who is holding it. As with the hammer-headed bat photograph opening this ShukerNature article, these images are merely clever examples of forced perspective.

So, sadly, if we want to discover a bona fide giant bat, we must look for it not online but rather in the riverside jungles of Africa, or listen out for its unique triple cry amid the shadowy forests of Java.

A selection of sourceless online photographs of supposedly giant bats that in reality are nothing more than examples of forced perspective (© owners presently unknown to me – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational, review purposes only)

For more information concerning the ahool, olitiau, sasabonsam, and other crypto-bats, be sure to check out my book The Beasts That Hide From Man.

IT'S THE BIGGEST AMBLYPYGID IN THE WORLD! WHIPPING UP SOME INTEREST IN WHIP SCORPIONS

Exquisite engraving from 1898 of Phrynus tessellatus, a Caribbean species of amblypygid or tailless whip scorpion (public domain)

Readers of a certain age (i.e. my own or older) will probably recognise that the main title of this ShukerNature article of mine is a totally shameless parody of the title from a famous comedy song released in 1938 by the much-loved British war-time singer Gracie Fields, the song in question being 'It's the Biggest Aspidastra in the World!' (I know, I know, but it was just too fantastic a pun to let pass!).

And here, just in case you were wondering what one looked like, is an aspidistra (note correct spelling of name) – although, sadly, it's not the biggest in the world! (© Frank C. Müller/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 4.0 licence)

Anyway, aspidistras aside (but see this blog article's epilogue for a short note regarding the odd spelling and pronunciation of their name as featured in Gracie's song but nowhere else), just what are amblypygids?

Illustration of an amblypygid from C.L. Koch's Die Arachniden (1841) (public domain)

I first learned about them as a child when reading the August 1966 issue of the then-monthly (previously-weekly) British magazine Animals, which contained an article by naturalist R.C.H. Sweeney memorably entitled ''Monsters' of the Caves'. This proved to be an excerpt from his forthcoming book The Scurrying Bush, and told of his encountering these ostensibly unearthly creatures while exploring various large, many-tunnelled caves in Tanzania's Mkulumuzi Gorge. Also known as tailless whip scorpions, amblypygids are arachnids related to the vinegaroons or tailed whip scorpions, but they look more like exceedingly long-limbed spiders, albeit of the kind from which nightmares are spawned. In reality, however, they are basically harmless, lacking both a sting and venom fangs, though they can give quite a nasty bite with their chelicerae (the principal, inner jaws of arachnids) or nip with their pincer-bearing pedipalps (the outer jaws of arachnids).

A vinegaroon or tailed whip scorpion, exhibiting its posterior whip-tail or flagellum and its elongated first pair of limbs or whip-legs (© Glenn Bartolotti/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 4.0 licence)

Whereas the vinegaroons earn their tailed whip scorpion appellation primarily from their long whip-like tail or flagellum, the amblypygids earn their tailless whip scorpion counterpart not just from the fact that they lack any such tail but also from their specialised first pair of limbs, which are exceptionally long and slender (as they also are but to a much lesser extent in vinegaroons), thereby possessing a fanciful resemblance to whips (even though they are not utilised in any comparable manner to such implements). Indeed, their 'whip limbs' are so inordinately elongate (even by normal amblypygid limb standards!) that they can measure up to several times the length of their entire body, and are so fragile that they readily snap off.

Amblypygid with one damaged whip limb (© Iskander HFC/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 3.0 licence)

Coupling their whip limbs with these extraordinary arachnids' spider-like overall outward appearance, amblypygids are sometimes loosely dubbed whip spiders, but in reality they constitute an entirely separate taxonomic order of arachnids (Amblypygi) from true spiders (Araneae), just as tailed whip scorpions (Thelyphonida) do from true scorpions (Scorpiones) (again, these latter two groups are superficially reminiscent of one another externally, this time due primarily to the posterior tail-like flagellum of the tailed whip scorpions recalling the posterior sting of the true scorpions).

An amalgamation of amblypygids (© Geoff Hume/Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0 licence)

And as if matters of taxonomic identity and affinity were not confused enough already by now in relation to amblypygids, they are also often mistakenly thought by laypeople to be allied to insects! The reason for this ostensibly strange assumption is due to a behavioural quirk they exhibit that is unique to whip scorpions among arachnids but is a major characteristic of insects. For whereas virtually all other arachnids move using all eight limbs, the amblypygids run (very rapidly) and scuttle around only on six legs (just like insects), with their whip limbs, far too fragile and lengthy to be able to function as locomotory limbs, held upwards and outwards.

An amblypygid from Togo in western Africa, showing the full extent of its whip limbs (© Notafly/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 3.0 licence)

In fact, their whip limbs are actually used as tactile sensory organs, stretched out fully to make contact with their surroundings amid the stygian environment in which these arachnids usually live (and in which eyesight is rendered largely obsolete, despite their possessing eight simple eyes). This activity provides their amblypygid owners with detailed information concerning obstacles, the nearness of walls, and the width of cracks in walls or other surfaces into which they can squeeze their wafer-thin, dorsoventrally flattened body in order to escape or remain hidden from potential predators. In short, their whip limbs fulfil a similar function in terms of gauging distances and widths of potential escape routes to the antennae of insects, and the whiskers or vibrissae of certain mammals, such as cats and rodents. They are also used to 'feel' for prey (mostly arthropods, including other amblypygids occasionally, but also small vertebrates sometimes), which once detected is rapidly seized by their much stouter and more powerful outermost pair of mouthparts, the pedipalps. These in turn hand the prey to, then hold it firmly in place for, the chelicerae to macerate into liquid form for sucking into the mouth and thence the gut.

A pregnant amblypygid (© Pavel Kirillov/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA. 2.0 licence)

Most fascinating of all, however, is that research studies conducted at Cornell University in New York, USA, and published in December 2017 have suggested that in some species of amblypygid, adult females may actually use their whip limbs to communicate with their offspring, which in turn may be doing the same to communicate not only with their mother but also with their fellow siblings. If so, this is one of the few examples of social interaction known among arachnids,

Close-up view of a Togo amblypygid's formidable spine-fringed pedipalps (© Notafly/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 3.0 licence)

In amblypygids, their pedipalps are also very long (albeit far less so than their whips), with a series of thorny spines running along their inner edge, and each pedipalp bears at its tip a noticeably large, powerful pincer for firmly grasping hold of prey, similar in basic appearance to the chela of a large crustacean such as a crab or lobster. Just like theirs, moreover, these can also inflict a not-insignificant skin-puncturing nip to unwary, intrusive fingers, or noses, of anything posing a threat to the amblypygid. When the latter is at rest, however, its pedipalps are held directly in front of, and at right angles to, its mouth, folded back upon themselves.

An amblypygid at rest, with its pedipalps characteristically folded back upon themselves (© Psychonaught/Wikipedia – CC BY 3.0 licence)

Over 150 species of living amblypygid have currently been described (plus various fossil forms dating back as far as the Carboniferous Period, over 300 million years ago), and they collectively occur in many tropical and subtropical regions of the world including Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Australia, but due to their reclusive behaviour these arachnids are rarely seen unless specifically searched for, because they are all nocturnal and also spend much of their time concealed in leaf litter or inside cracks or crevices within tree bark or the walls and roof of caves – unless moulting. For during moulting, which happens several times during their lifetime, amblypygids normally hang downward from cave roofs or other raised surfaces, shedding their old exoskeleton down onto the ground and remaining suspended until their new exoskeleton hardens and darkens.

An amblypygid found in a cave in Lanquin, Guatemala (© Nick Johnson/Wikipedia – CC BY 2.0 licence)

Needless to say, however, anyone encountering at close range such a bizarre-looking creature within the shadowy gloom of a cave or other dark abode but unfamiliar with their nature could be forgiven for barely suppressing a shriek of horror, especially if the amblypygid in question is one of the more substantial species. Even the normally redoubtable American zoologist, cryptozoologist, and animal collector Ivan T. Sanderson freely confessed in his book Animal Treasure (1937), detailing his collecting of animals in West Africa, that he personally considered these particular arachnids to be loathsome and nightmarish. As they are certainly frightful in form, albeit quite innocuous in nature, and given that if encountered unexpectedly in the wild they are liable with their extended whip limbs to stroke the face of anyone peering unwarily close to them, it is not difficult to understand his view.

Beautiful vintage illustration of an amblypygid showing its whip limbs extended, dating back to 1911-1919 (public domain)

As for size, just how large are the largest amblypygids? This question leads us into potentially controversial territory, because the most sizeable species have sometimes been referred to as the largest of all living arachnids. However, this claim is by no means as straightforward as it may initially seem, because 'largeness' is not a quantifiable property of an object.

An amblypygid from Chorao island, Goa, in India (© Biusch/Wikipedia – CC BY 3.0 licence)

The length of an object can usually be directly measured, using various systems of unit, including the imperial system (inches, feet, yards, miles, etc) and the metric system (millimetres, centimetres, metres, kilometres, etc). So too can an object's weight, via units such as ounces, pounds, stones, and tons (in the imperial system), and milligrams, grams, kilograms, and tonnes (in the metric system). The same is also true of its area and its volume. But how do you measure its largeness – what units of largeness exist? There are no such units, because largeness is a subjective, abstract concept, not an objective, quantifiable, measurable property. Consequently, when something is said to be the largest example of its kind, it is often something that is both the longest and the heaviest of its kind – but there are many instances when the longest of its kind is not also the heaviest. So which is then the largest – the longest of its kind, or the heaviest?

Komodo dragon (left) and Salvadori's monitor (right) – heavier vs longer, so which is larger, and why? (© Dr Karl Shuker / public domain)

If the heavier of the two contenders also exhibits a sizeable length, we tend to favour the heavier when talking about the largest, simply because visually it is more impressive. This is why, for instance, the much heavier but shorter Komodo dragon Varanus komodoensis is deemed the world's largest species of lizard, rather than Salvadori's monitor V. salvadorii, which is longer but much lighter. But again, there are exceptions, and if surface area considerations are also taken into account the situation becomes even more complex (should the African plains elephant Loxodonta africana really be deemed the largest land mammal, for example, rather than the much taller and more visually impressive yet much lighter giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis, and how do their respective surface areas compare?), thereby making judgements concerning the largest of anything fraught with difficulties and inconsistencies.

As seen here with this Brazilian example, the limbs of amblypygids are disproportionately lengthy relative to their body size (most especially their whip limbs, which can be several times as long as their body) (© KatzBird/Wikipedia – CC BY 2.0 licence)

So, applying this to arachnids, it can be readily appreciated that we can easily quantify which is the longest species of living arachnid (India's giant forest scorpion Heterometrus swammerdami, up to 11.9 in long), and the heaviest species of living arachnid (northern South America's goliath bird-eating spider Theraphosa blondi, up to 6.2 oz), but not the largest species of living arachnid. The reason why those particular amblypygids with the longest, heaviest bodies among such arachnids have also been called the largest species of all living arachnids is that when their whip limbs are fully extended laterally, the span from whip-tip to whip-tip is far greater than the leg span of any other arachnid when its longest legs are similarly extended laterally.

A specimen of Acanthophrynus coronatus (© Raquel Cisneros/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 3.0 licence)

The amblypygid record-holder in this capacity is Acanthophrynus coronatus, inhabiting caves in Central and northern South America, with specimens boasting an extremely impressive fully-extended whip-tip to whip-tip span of up to 27.6 in, and able to prey upon lizards and frogs comparable in size to itself – it truly is the biggest amblypygid in the world! It is also famous for stridulating with its chelicerae. However, the body length and especially the body weight even of these most substantial of amblypygids are still much less than those of the most sizeable scorpions and spiders.

Another sizeable amblypygid, Damon [formerly Titanodamon] johnstoni from West Africa (public domain)

All of which leads very conveniently to a question that I've been asked on more than one occasion by fellow fans of the Harry Potter series of movies. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, bringing to the big screen the eponymous fourth novel in J.K. Rowling's celebrated Harry Potter heptalogy, during a lesson at Hogwarts in which the three Unforgivable Spells are being demonstrated, the teacher in question, ostensibly Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody (though in the climax of the book and movie it is revealed that this is not Moody at all but is in fact Barty Crouch Jr impersonating him using Polyjuice Potion), applies the spells to what many viewers have simply assumed to be a made-up, non-existent spider-like monster, but which is actually an amblypygid. It is also placed on pupil Ron Weasley's head - much to Ron's evident horror! However, this amblypygid is far larger in every way – body length, body width, and limb length – than even the mighty A. coronatus. How is that possible? In fact, this very imposing on-screen amblypygid was entirely computer-generated – during which process the fundamental form of a real amblypygid was recreated, but with its proportions greatly enlarged in order to make it look more monstrous.

Screenshot from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (screenshot obtained here) depicting Ron Weasley (played by Rupert Grint) not enjoying his exceedingly close encounter with the giant amblypygid (© J.K. Rowling/Mike Newell/Heyday Films/Patalex IV Productions/Warner Brothers Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly educational non-commercial Fair Use basis for the purposes of review only)

Finally: it may come as something of a surprise to ShukerNature readers who were not previously familiar with amblypygids, but these somewhat alienesque arachnids can be obtained through the pet trade and actually make good pets, although the most commonly-kept pet species is Damon diadema from Tanzania; the much bigger A. coronatus does not fare well in this capacity and therefore is not generally available commercially. As long as they are well-fed and suitably housed in large glass enclosures with all environmental requirements (especially temperature, humidity, substrate, and hiding places) fully met, amblypygids are generally quite docile, much more so than any other type of large arachnid.

Damon diadema (© AdrxO90/Wikipedia - CC BY-SA 3.0 licence)

Having said that: in a video clip that was recently doing the rounds on social media, a captive amblypygid specimen belonging to the extremely large Tanzanian species Euphrynichus amanica was being teased by its presumed owner in order to incite it to extend its lengthy pedipalps and snap their pincers at the owner's finger for the camera, which the distraught amblypygid, being forced to adopt a defensive mode, duly did on several occasions, but backing away whenever possible from what it perceived to be a threat from the finger. Finally, the owner closed their hand over the amblypygid and picked it up, and after a few seconds its pedipalps could be seen to move down onto the owner's little finger, whereupon the owner abruptly and visibly flinched before swiftly placing the amblypygid back down and looking at their finger. The pedipalps' movements were too rapid to be absolutely certain of what happened, but after freezing the relevant frame it looked to me as if the unsettled amblypygid had pinched its owner's finger with at least one if not both of them – an action that according to descriptions elsewhere apparently elicits the sensation of having a thorn piercing the skin. (Incidentally, a version of this video clip was uploaded onto YouTube on 7 March 2016 and can currently be viewed here, but I wish to point out that there is no suggestion anywhere that the person who uploaded it is actually the person featured in it; indeed, what looks like the same specimen and owner also appear in a different YouTube video clip uploaded a month earlier by a seemingly different person and viewable here.)

An amblypygid in El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico – as readily seen here, a nip from amblypygid pedipalps like these, while not dangerous, is nonetheless not recommended! (© George Gallice/Wikipedia – CC BY 2.0 licence)

And the moral of this incident? Never antagonise an amblypygid!

Amblypygids make interesting and docile pets if treated kindly (© Caspar S/Wikipedia – CC BY 2.0 licence)

EPILOGUE: PEDANTS' CORNER

Yes, I am indeed aware that on both the original 78 rpm record and the sheet music to the afore-mentioned Gracie Fields comedy song from 1938, the name of the titular plant was spelt 'Aspidastra', not 'Aspidistra', and that Gracie even pronounced it that way when singing the song. Nevertheless, this spelling and her pronunciation were incorrect, but nowhere have I been able to discover how and why such an error arose, nor why it was perpetuated and never corrected. And as Gracie herself passed away in 1979, it may well remain a mystery indefinitely.

Gracie Fields in 1937, a year before her famous botanically-themed song was released (public domain)