This Will Make You Think Twice Before Grabbing a Twig Ever Again

“This…this is what my nightmares are made of!” That’s what one Reddit user wrote after seeing the photo of a Dolophones turrigera, a.k.a. “Wrap-around spider.”

The eight-legged creature, which is commonly found in grasslands, woodlands, and gardens, was seen in the Rotary Rainforest Reserve in Lismore, New South Wales.

And it is camouflaged to look like a twig!

You have to look closely to see the spider’s outline.

Dolophones turrigera is an atypically-shaped, gray-brown arachnid with a cone-shaped body. Brown ornate plates can be seen on the surface of its abdomen, and these help enhance the spider’s twig-like appearance. Each plate or disc has a slit or line at the center. It also has a turret on the upper surface of its abdomen.

This creepy crawler has a concave underside, which allows it to wrap itself around twigs or branches during the day to hide from predators such as wasps and birds. At night, it builds an orb-like web vertically between two trees. The web is taken down before morning.

Overall, a Wrap-around spider’s color and appearance provide a great camouflage when it’s resting on a twig.

This species is typically small. The size of an adult female is approximately 8mm while the male is only 4-5mm. The Dolophones turrigera resembles other Dolophones species such as the Dolophones conifera.

The photo of the Wrap-around spider that was posted on Reddit has elicited squeamish responses from several users.

Another Reddit user wrote: “This is one of the craziest looking spiders ever. We are always charmed and amused with your wonderful submissions from down under.”

Well, arachnophobes might think twice before grabbing a twig from now on. They do bite. Fortunately, though, they’re harmless.