A couple’s anniversary cruise took an unexpected turn when a spider laid eggs inside of a man’s toe.
Colin Blake had been enjoying a cruise with his wife when his toe suddenly turned purple after going out for dinner in Marseille, France.
He told BBC Scotland: ‘My wife thought it may be because I had new sandals and they were rubbing on my big toe and that was causing it to be red.’
But a trip to the ship’s doctor revealed a much more sinister reason – a Peruvian wolf spider had bitten him and laid eggs inside his toe.
The giant arachnids made their way to France after arriving through cargo ships, but Mr Blake was completely unaware one had decided to latch onto his toe.
Medics then decided to cut open his toe with a scalpel, revealing a ‘milk-like’ pus and ‘tea leaves’ – which were the spider eggs.
Grisly photos showed the skin on Mr Blake’s big toe crusting over and peeling, with some of the area seemingly rotting.
A course of antibiotics set Mr Blake on the road to recovery, but four weeks later he found a ‘foreign body’ in his foot.
Common name: Wolf Spider
Scientific name: Lycosidae spp.
Average life span: 1 year, rarely up to 18 months
Size: Species range from 0.24 to 1.2 inches
Wolf spiders are the sprinters of the spider world. Most of the species in this family don’t spin webs and instead, chase and pounce on their insect prey like the wolves that inspire their name.
Once they catch their prey, they either mash it up into a ball or inject venom into it, liquefying the internal organs into a wolf-spider smoothie.
All wolf spiders have eight dark eyes arranged around their heads, or cephalothorax.
Two large eyes gleam from the top of the head; two more large eyes peer out the front; and four smaller eyes form a row just above the spider’s mouth.
Most wolf spiders spend their time on the ground. The dark, mottled colors on their bodies help them blend in with decaying plant matter while hunting or avoiding predators. Sometimes they dig burrows or make holes under rocks or logs to live in.
When it’s time to mate, male wolf spiders attract females by rhythmically waving their long mouthparts (palps) or drumming them on leaves. Once mated, the female spins a round egg sac, attaches it to her abdomen and it carries around with her. The young hatch inside, then emerge and climb on mom’s back until they’re old enough to live on their own.
Many species are considered to have stable populations. But some, such as the desertas wolf spider of Portugal and the Kaua’i cave spider of Hawaii, are endangered.
Facts and information shared by National Geographic
He added: ‘One of the spider eggs hadn’t been flushed and must have hatched. They believe the spider was making its way out – eating its way out of my toe.’
Doctors removed the baby spider by cutting open Mr Blake’s toe yet again, and he said: ‘I did ask if I could keep it, but they said no.’
Wolf spiders have made their way across the world from their native Peru, and now live in every continent except for Antarctica.
In Australia, one woman had the fright of her life when she noticed dozens of baby wolf spiders clinging onto their mum’s back.
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