We’ve previously featured some giant movie spiders. How about a (theoretically) real life giant spider?
Meet the J’ba Fofi.
The J’ba FoFi, also known as the Congolese Giant Spiders, are a type of large arachnid cryptid which is said to inhabit the forests of the Congo, possibly representing a new species of Arachnida.
Most of the many anecdotal tales describe the spiders digging a shallow tunnel under tree roots and camouflaging it with a large screen of leaves. Then they create an almost invisible web between their burrow and a nearby tree, stringing the whole area with a network of trip lines. Some oblivious animal, that’s likely soon to end up on the creature’s menu, will trip the line alerting the spider. The victim will then be chased into the web. This type of predatory behavior is similar to that of several species of trap-door spider.
Natives claim the J’ba FoFi eggs are a pale yellow-white and shaped like peanuts, and the hatchlings are bright yellow with a purple abdomen. Their coloration becomes darker and brown as they mature. Some of the peoples indigenous to the regions in the Congo where the J’ba FoFi has been seen assert that the spider was once quite common, but has since become very rare. Possibly indicating the species has become endangered due to deforestation.
The fullest account by Westerners appears in a cryptozoological book by George Eberhart. On page 204, Eberhart relates the terrifying experience of an English couple traveling through a region of jungle in what is now called the Congo: “R.K. Lloyd and his wife were motoring in the Belgian Congo in 1938 when they saw a large object crossing the trail in front of them. At first, they thought it was a cat or a monkey, but they soon realized it was a spider with legs nearly 3 feet.”
Cryptozoologist William J. Gibbons has hunted for what some think may be a living Congolese dinosaur called Mokele-mbembe. On his third expedition in search of the creature he came upon natives who related their experiences with giant spiders. He shared his experience with readers upon his return to Canada:
“On this third expedition to Equatorial Africa, I took the opportunity to inquire if the pygmies knew of such a giant spider, and indeed they did! They speak of the J’ba FoFi, which is a “giant” or “great spider.” They described a spider that is generally brown in color with a purple mark on the abdomen. They grow to quite an enormous size with a leg span of at least five feet. The giant arachnids weave together a lair made of leaves similar in shape to a traditional pygmy hut, and spin a circular web (said to be very strong) between two trees with a strand stretched across a game trail.”
“These giant ground-dwelling spiders prey on the diminutive forest antelope, birds, and other small game, and are said to be extremely dangerous, not to mention highly venomous,” Gibbons states. “The spiders are said to lay white, peanut-sized eggs in a cluster, and the pygmies give them a wide berth when encountered, but have killed them in the past. The giant spiders were once very common but are now a rare sight.”
Supposedly someone captured footage of a J’ba Fofi in Mozambique in 2014. Look to the right side of this video:
Amazingly vague footage, is it not?
I think a spider of that size unlikely, but more likely than Mokele-mbembe.
But I don’t think I’ll be vacationing in the Congolese jungle any time soon…
Time for a walk through of this year’s Transworld Halloween trade show. These are always a lot of fun.
Bigger-than-life animatronic figures seem to be a continuing theme (and Sam’s has had one or two such for sale the last few years), including a number of oversized werewolves, and my neighborhood has several Gashadokuro this year. There was also a number of high quality giant spiders on display.
Way down on the list of my collecting vectors is books about giant spiders, so when I saw in a Heritage Auctions lot I decided to track down a copy.
Gotthelf, Jeremias (pseudonym for Albert Bitzius). The Black Spider. John Calder (Publishers) Ltd., 1958. First English language edition, a Near Fine+ copy with slight spine lean and former owners name inside front cover under flap, in a Very Good+ dust jacket with 1/4″ chip at head, two pinhead-sized abrasions at heel front join, wear at points, and moderate age darkening to white portion of spine. Nineteenth century allegorical horror story about evil made manifest as a giant black spider. Introduced and translated from the original German by H. M. Waidson. Barron, Horror Literature 2-35. Not in Bleiler’s Guide to Supernatural Fiction. Bought off a fellow Biblio dealer for $21.25.
More purchases from Half Price Books and Recycled Books, one of which was actually a mistake.
I’m running out of Halloween season, so it’s time for a post on that perennial source of creepiness: Spiders.
There are few things that triggers our primal fear reflex more than spiders, so here’s a Whitman’s Spider Sampler of Creepiness.
I’ve tried to avoid the common gifs everyone’s already seen, but I am intrigued by this completely unconvincing, yet oddly unnerving film snippet, and I’d like to know what (presumably silent) film it’s from:
Here’s the exceptionally creepy spider attack from The Mist:
And here’s Cyriak’s deeply disturbing “Cobwebs”:
Let’s end on a lighter note. There’s a Simon’s Cat with a spider:
And this:
Looks like I’ve been falling down on my Giant Spider reporting duties. A retro black-and-white giant spider film has been released called, oddly enough, The Giant Spider.
There’s an IMDB listing for it as well.
Here’s a trailer for the forthcoming film Big Ass Spider:
It’s every bit as good as you would expect a trailer for a film called Big Ass Spider to be.
I’m pretty sure the intro at the beginning of the clip was timed just right to make the bikini volleyball scene show up as the default YouTube image…
Supposedly one with the long lost “spider pit” footage. I’ll believe it when I see it, but that’s probably the second-most-famous missing footage from an existent film, behind only the missing reel of The Magnificent Ambersons.
(Hat tip: Bill Crider. )