by Terrence Aym

Created on: May 05, 2010

Spiders might exist that have crawled out of nightmares. They're called the "J'ba FoFi" (giant spider, pronounced ch-bah foo fee) in Central Africa.

Many people might define a giant spider as one that's bigger than their hand. Some may think bigger and envision the horrifying Goliath 'bird eating spider' that dwells in the darker corners of the ancient Amazon rain forest. That eight-legged terror spans a whopping 14-inches.

Unfortunately, those people aren't thinking big enough.

The size of the Congolese Giant spider-when its legs are included-is said to be up to five feet across.

According to cryptozoologists (researchers that investigate unknown creatures that have not been recognized by orthodox science), most of the J'ba FoFi dwell in the Congo. Natives tell stories of the giant web-nests the spiders build, similar to a trap-door spider.

Most of the many anecdotal tales describe the spiders digging a shallow tunnel under tree roots and camouflaging it with a large bed of leaves.  Then they create an almost invisible web between their burrow and a nearby tree, booby-trapping the whole thing with a network of trip lines. Some hapless creature—soon to end up on the menu—will trip the line alerting the spider. The victim will be chased into the web. This predatory entrapment is similar to some species of tarantula.

Presumably, the J'ba FoFi eggs are a pale yellow-white and shaped like peanuts. Native claim the hatchlings are bright yellow with a purple abdomen. Their coloration becomes darker and brown as they mature.

Some of the natives indigenous to the regions in the Congo where the J'ba FoFi has been seen assert that the spider was once quite common, but has become very rare.

Other than the testimonies of natives, the fullest account by Westerners appears in a cryptozoological book by George Eberhart. On page 204, Eberhart relates the terrifying experience of an English couple traveling through a jungle region of what is now called the Congo:

"R.K. Lloyd and his wife were motoring in the Belgium Congo in 1938 when they saw a large object crossing the trail in front of them. At first, they thought it was a cat or monkey, but they soon realized it was a spider with legs [spanning] nearly 3 feet [across]." [1]

Famous naturalist and cryptozoologist, William J. Gibbons, has hunted for what some think may be a living African dinosaur called Mokele-mbembe. On his third expedition in search of the creature he came upon natives who related their experiences

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