Mammoth but gentle huntsman spider looks too big to even be real
Australia is home to many different kinds of spiders, ranging from the venomous to the relatively harmless.
Although we'd bet you'd be hard pressed to find one bigger than Charlotte the huntsman spider, who was found and photographed by the folks at Barnyard Betty's Rescue in Queensland, Australia a year ago.
It's only in the last couple of days, that Charlotte has received lots of internet attention however, and there's little wonder why.
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She's spectacularly, almost unrealistically big, as photos of her hanging on the end of a broom show.
Charlotte was rescued and released, and the people at Barnyard Betty's Rescue assure Facebook that it's not photoshopped. "She was a beautiful, calm spider, not aggressive in any way and like most spiders she just wanted to go about her business eating bugs and living in peace.
"She didn't or doesn't need to be killed! Poor spiders are so misunderstood," the rescue centre said Facebook post on Wednesday.
The average huntsman spider has a body span of 2 centimetres (0.7 inches) for females, and 1.6 centimetres (0.62 inches) for males. Their leg span reaches up to 15 centimetres (5.9 inches).
According to Australian Museum arachnologist Graham Milledge, Charlotte is more a little out of the ordinary.
"The spider in the photo appears to be a Giant Green Huntsman Spider, Typostola barbata. This is one of the larger species of huntsman spider found in Australia, with a leg span of over 20cm (7.8 inches), and is mainly found in eastern Queensland," he told Mashable via email.
So while Charlotte may look unreal, she definitely is.
UPDATE: Nov. 4, 2016, 12:01 p.m. AEDT Added comments from Graham Milledge.
