We know looking at spiders isn’t necessarily your favorite thing to do, but you need to check out this one. We promise it won’t creep you out, though you might find it a little freaky. That’s because this spider’s butt looks just like Pikachu from Pokémon.
No, really.
Spiders.us (my new favorite site) says Micrathena comes from “the Greek adjective ‘small’ and the name of the goddess Athena who wore armor and was also a weaver” and “sagittata is Latin for ‘arrowed.’” Not only are the females larger than the males (7-10 mm to 4-6), that distinct, arrow-shaped abdomen with the two Pikachu spikes only belongs to mature females.
If you want to see one for yourself, they can be found “among shrubs and other foliage” of “deciduous woodlands and forest edges” in North America, from Canada to Central America, as far south as Panama. (This gorgeous one was found in Honduras.)
Don’t think of it as a spider hunt. Think of it as playing a real-life Pokémon Go.
Would you want to go looking for a spider with a Pikachu butt? Tell us why in the comments below.
Images: The Pokémon Company
