Ewwww! Photos of Bat-Eating Spiders

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Creepy!

bat-eating spider

(Image credit: Photo by Yasunori Maezono, Kyoto University, Japan)

Bat-eating spiders are common and apparently creep around every continent, except Antarctica, devouring various bat species, according to a study detailed in the journal PLOS ONE on March 13, 2013, by Martin Nyffeler, a senior lecturer in zoology at the University of Basel in Switzerland, and Mirjam Knörnschild, of the University of Ulm in Germany.

Here, a dead bat (Rhinolophus cornutus orii) caught in the web of a female Nephila pilipes on Amami-Oshima Island, Japan.

Lunch in a palm swamp

bat-eating spider

(Image credit: Photo by Sam Barnard, Colorado Springs, USA)

A volant juvenile proboscis bat (Rhynchonycteris naso) entangled in web of Nephila clavipes photographed in a palm swamp forest near Madre de Dios, Peru.

Dead and entangled

bat-eating spider

(Image credit: Photo by Sam & Samantha Bloomquist, Indianapolis, USA)

Dead bat entangled in web of a female Nephila clavipes in a tropical rain forest in the middle of the Rio Dulce River Canyon near Livingston, Guatemala.

Feeding on a bat

bat-eating spider

(Image credit: Photo by Carmen Fabro, Cockatoo Hill, Australia)

A small bat (superfamily Rhinolophoidea) entangled in the web of a Nephila pilipes spider at the top of the Cockatoo Hill near Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia. The spider pressed its mouth against the dead, wrapped bat, indicating that it was feeding on it.

Still alive, but trapped

bat-eating spider

(Image credit: Photo by Donald Schultz, Hollywood, USA)

Live bat trapped in the web of the spider Nephilengys cruentata in a thatch roof at Nisela Lodge, Swaziland.

Hanging out in Hong Kong

bat-eating spider

(Image credit: Photo by Carol S.K. Liu from AFCD Hong Kong, China)

Dead vespertilionid bat entangled in the web of a female Nephila pilipes in the Aberdeen Country Park, Hong Kong.

Entangled

bat-eating spider

(Image credit: Photo by Carol S.K. Liu from AFCD Hong Kong, China)

Dead vespertilionid bat entangled in the web of a female Nephila pilipes in the Aberdeen Country Park, Hong Kong.

Feeding time

bat-eating spider

(Image credit: Photo by Rick West, British Columbia, Canada)

Adult female Avicularia urticans spider feeding on a greater sac-winged bat (Saccopteryx bilineata) on the side of a palm tree near the Rio Yarapa, Peru.

In Costa Rica

bat-eating spider

(Image credit: Photo by Mirjam Knörnschild, Germany)

Adult proboscis bat (Rhynchonycteris naso) entangled in web of Argiope savignyi at the La Selva Biological Station, northern Costa Rica.

Entangled Myotis bat

bat-eating spider

(Image credit: Photo by Harald & Gisela Unger, Köln, Germany)

Dead bat (Myotis sp.) entangled in a web of Nephila clavipes in La Sirena, Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica.

Orb Web

bat-eating spider

(Image credit: Photo by Carol Farneti-Foster, Belice City, Belize)

Dead bat (presumably Centronycteris centralis) entangled in an orb-web in Belize.

Live Science Staff
Live Science Staff
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