They are huge, have eight blue-black and yellow-striped legs, and will soon be available in the U.S. Most of the can go to the East Beach.
A study published in the journal Physiological Entomology says the palm-sized zoro spider, which has been confined to warmer southeastern states for nearly a decade, may soon be expected to colonize regions with cooler climates.
That's because researchers have discovered that larger arachnids are more likely to survive a brief freeze than other closely related species of the same genus.
"People should try to learn to live with them," Andy Davis, a research scientist at the Odum School of Ecology and one of the authors behind the recent study, told UGA Today, a publication of the University of Georgia.
A zoro spider can grow to be about 3 inches long, including a large bulbous body with bright yellow stripes. Its underbelly has distinctive red markings, and it weaves large webs that look as if they were cut from golden silk.
It gets its name from Jorogumo, who in Japanese folklore can transform herself into a beautiful woman who can hunt unsuspecting men.
Despite their startling appearance – and their namesake – Davies notes that zoros do not appear to be harmful or have much of an impact on local agriculture or ecosystems. In fact, he said, they may be beneficial to native raptors as an additional food source. And, while they kill their prey using venom, scientists say they are harmless to people and pets because their fangs are usually too short to break human skin.
In other words, try to leave them alone, Davis says.
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"If they're really in your way, I can see a web taking them down and taking them over the edge, but they're going to be back next year," Davis said.
To learn more about their biology, the researchers compared zoros to the golden silk spider, a closely related species that originated from tropical climates in Southeast Asia and the U.S. over the past 160 years. established itself in this field.
They found that zoro spiders have a metabolism twice as high as their spider-cousins and have a 77 percent faster heart rate when exposed to low temperatures.
"These findings suggest that the zoro spider may be present in a colder climate zone than in the southeastern United States," the study said.
Another reason they are spreading so quickly is that they are good travelers. Hatchlings do something called ballooning, which is when they use web silk to carry them to new locations in the air.
There's also the human factor, said Benjamin Frick, an undergraduate researcher on the project.
"The potential for these spiders to spread through the movements of people is very high," Frick said.
He continued: "Anecdotally, just before we published this study, we received a report from a graduate student at UGA who had mistakenly taken one of these to Oklahoma."
Joro spiders are native to Japan and possibly transported to the U.S. in shipping containers. make its way to the