Lots Of Spiders Eat Bats (And Not Just In Your Nightmares)

The collective innocence of the world was robbed when we learned about huge bird-eating spiders. Luckily for us, they were stuck in random countries we always forget about in Sporcle quizzes, so we didn't have to worry about them in the immediate future. But what about bat-eating spiders? Surely those are just as rare, we ... hope?

Guess that solves the whole Spider-Man vs. Batman debate.

Actually, there are bat-eating spiders on every continent in the world except Antarctica (because bats can't live there). Previously, researchers believed that bats dying in spider webs were rare, coincidental occurrences, but recent studies show that several spider species in warm climates -- the web-building Argiope savignyi and the tarantula Poecilotheria rufilata -- actively trap and eat smaller bats more frequently than previously believed.

These bat-eating spiders have been known to trap bats in webs up to five feet wide. Sometimes the bats are strong enough to rip through the webs, but others get surprised when their flight is interrupted, and some can die of exhaustion while entangled in the web. And the spiders have also been observed actively attacking live, trapped bats.

Anyway, we hope you're not reading this right before you go to sleep, because we certainly wouldn't want you to have strange dreams about anything in particular SPIDERS SPIDERS BATS BATS BAT-EATING SPIDERS GIANT SPIDERS LITERALLY ATTACKING AND EATING BATS. G'night!

Friendly reminder that bats are soft and adorable, and not just as plushies.

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