Meet The Goliath Birdeater, The Biggest Spider In The World By Weight

Because spiders don’t have teeth, they must liquefy the insides of their prey so they can suck it dry. The Goliath birdeater does this by regurgitating digestive juices onto its victim which breaks down soft tissue, turning the insides into a slurpy concoction. By the time the Goliath tarantula finishes feeding, only bones, skin, and fur remain.

But if the Goliath birdeater doesn’t kill birds as frequently as its name suggests, where did the scary nickname come from?

The name “birdeater” originated from an 18th-century engraving that showed another kind of tarantula eating a hummingbird. The discovery inspired the moniker “birdeater” which is now used to describe the entire Theraphosa spider genus of South America.