The Surreal Spiders of the Star Wars Universe
The Surreal Spiders of the Star Wars Universe
May the Fourth Be With You! Today is a fun day for Star Wars fans around the world to celebrate their favorite franchise and likely rewatch their favorite movies and shows a million times. One of the best parts of this saga is the countless creatures, aliens, and characters that have been created over the past 45-ish years. Many of them actually mirror our real creatures, with some creative liberties of course. One previous blog post from us actually compared some of the most popular fictional creatures from this galaxy with our insects on Earth. But one specific creepy crawly that we didn’t touch on is the spider, including all of the variations that Star Wars uses to instill new nightmares in those of us who don’t take kindly to spiders of any size.
Knobby White Ice Spider
This is likely the most well-known Star Wars spider for most fans, since it appeared in the live-action show The Mandalorian. In season 2 chapter 10, Din, Grogu, and their maternal frog-like passenger (watch the episode to learn what that’s about) are trapped in a massive ice cave on Maldo Kreis that is suddenly discovered to be infested with knobby white ice spiders. These spiders are a terrifying range of sizes, from tiny to the literal size of Din’s ship. The carnivorous spiders chased the group through the tunnels to their ship, where they desperately tried to escape the nightmare. The trouble started when Grogu decided to eat one of the soft-shelled eggs that housed a baby spider along with green juices and slime. The adult spiders are even scarier than that, if you can believe it. Their head is in the center of their body going down, and they have two sets of teeth; one outer set that’s round and one inner set that’s smaller. They make and shoot out their webs from the mouth as well. Also, adults have eight legs while the young only have six. Luckily, our heroes escape these alarmingly-spindly creatures and don’t make a return to the planet, which is a good call.
Thank the stars that our spiders are not anywhere close to the size of the massive knobby white ice spider! But that doesn’t mean that ours are any less creepy. Like these fictional spiders, ours are also protective of their eggs and webs. Many species lay eggs directly in the web inside an egg sac. The black widow is one notable kind, as that is an easy way to tell when you have a black widow web on your hands. But unlike the Star Wars spider, ours don’t lay eggs individually. There are hundreds of eggs inside one egg sac, which is why you never want to squish one. After the spider babies hatch, they stay near home for a while before they venture out. This is also similar to the knobby white ice spider, which clearly like to stay where they were hatched so they can aid their mother in defending their home from unknowing space travelers.
Knobby White Spider
This looks like an accidental repeat upon first glance, but it is actually distinct from the previous spider. This one doesn’t live in the ice, but rather on the famous planet Dagobah, where Yoda goes into exile. The knobby white spider begins as a spider and turns into…a tree?! This odd arachnid is made of calcified wood and doesn’t move or eat until they are no longer a freshly-hatched spider. It will explore for a few weeks, wandering around and gaining nutrients by eating the other creatures, until it decides to settle down somewhere. It will become enclosed by bark, its legs becoming the roots of the tree that develops over the course of three months. So a lot of the gnarl trees that we see in The Empire Strikes Back might be grown knobby white spiders! When they are still spiders, they are basically the same as their icy cousins: massive in size, large head, eight legs, and eight compound eyes. These ones have the addition of a stinger under their body and smaller ones on their legs, which makes them somehow worse. The concept art by artist Ralph McQuarrie in 1979 inspired the creation of both knobby white spiders, even if they weren’t canonically used until The Mandalorian.
We don’t know of any real spiders that become trees, but there are some that like to live inside them. Some species of funnel-web spiders live inside fallen trees, like in Australia. This is because the wood provides nutrients that they can’t get anywhere else. Their home is made cozy with an eerily long web, made of spider silk, that shows how long they have lived in there based on the length. Other common spiders live on trees, especially in between branches. Their web provides protection from virtually any large insect, since it will get caught in the sticky strands. So our trees may not be made of spiders, but they are definitely inhabited by them in the warmer months.
Krykna Spider
This is another freaky spider that looks similar to the previous two listed, but it is not as creepy-looking as them – mostly. These gray spiders were mainly shown in the animated show Rebels over the course of multiple episodes. Krykna spiders first appeared in season 2 episode 20 “The Mystery of Chopper Base,” which is fitting since they were definitely the aforementioned mystery. They are native to the planet Atollon, where the rebels decide to temporarily establish their base. They set up the building and equipment thinking that they are finally safe, until some of their numbers are picked off by these territorial spiders. The krykna spiders use their beaked mouths to eat their prey after they carry them down to their underground hives. Unfortunately for our heroes, they are resistant to blaster bolts and being mentally-tamed by the Force, which usually does the trick with non-sentient creatures. But the rebels figured out how to keep these nightmares from attacking their base: setting up sensor markers all around the building since the vibrations and signals agitate the spiders to the point of them leaving.
Earthly spiders can also have a range of habitats, including underground spaces where they are less likely to be disturbed. Certain sit-and-wait species like tarantulas, trapdoor spiders, and wolf spiders live in their burrows and wait for potential prey to get closer. While these furry fiends aren’t massive like the krykna spiders, they are definitely larger than some of the tiny spiders we find in our homes. Tarantulas and trapdoor spiders are also nocturnal, which means that they have the luxury of waiting for prey in the cool night. Once the prey gets close enough, they pounce and grab, then enjoy their meal in the comfort of their home. The good news is that many of these kinds of spiders don’t like to be near houses due to the noise and disturbance, so we won’t have to worry about finding them in most suburban areas.
Spice Spider
This is a lesser-known fictional spider from the rest of this list. It has only appeared in some comics and storybooks a few times, but it is still a ghastly spider that we are thankful does not exist in our universe. The spice spider is native to the planets Taul and Aaloth, but is also found in the spice mines on Kessel (remember the famous Kessel Run remark?). It is attracted to small bits of moving light in the caves, and can even sense motion. These purple arachnids, also referred to as energy spiders, avoid massive amounts of light in favor of the dark mines. They eat creatures that are attracted to the spice, so it works out that they live in the mines. The spice spider will shoot its web at the prey, impale it, then suck the vital substances out of it. And since they can absorb blaster bolts, spice spiders aren’t the easiest pests to get rid of in the Star Wars universe.
Like the previous spiders mentioned, our spiders are, mercifully, not as big or indestructible as spice spiders. But some of them can also sense motion in some way, such as the black widow. This venomous spider will crouch low on the web with all of their legs tucked in to sense high frequencies put out by their prey. Their small cracks in the exoskeleton, called slit sensilla, sense vibrations and frequencies. The black widow needs to stay low to the web in order to sense the prey and not the wind, as small insects emit higher frequencies that black widows know to look for. They may not be attracted to spice, since that kind of mined material doesn’t exist here, but black widows definitely know how to attack their prey by patiently waiting in the shadows.
Our Pest Control Forces Spiders Out
While these science-fiction spiders aren’t real (thankfully!), the spiders that we have on Earth are enough to make anyone squeamish when they decide to invade our homes. Our team is equipped to handle any spider infestation with our trained expert technicians that use EPA-approved treatments, not lightsabers or Jedi mind tricks, to provide you with a spider-free home or business.
Citations
Knobby white spider. (n.d.). Wookieepedia. Retrieved on April 21, 2022, from https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Knobby_white_spider/Legends
Knobby white ice spider. (n.d.). Wookieepedia. Retrieved on April 21, 2022, from https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Knobby_white_ice_spider
Krykna. (n.d.). Wookieepedia. Retrieved on April 21, 2022, from https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Krykna
Millburn, N. (n.d.). Spiders that burrow. Pets on Mom. Available at https://animals.mom.com/spiders-burrow-9506.html (Accessed on April 21, 2022).
Spice spider. (n.d.). Wookieepedia. Retrieved on April 21, 2022, from https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Spice_spider
Spider eggs in the house: What do you need to know?. (n.d.). Terminix. Retrieved on April 21, 2022, from https://www.terminix.com/blog/home-garden/spiders-eggs-in-the-house/
The mystery of Chopper Base. (n.d.). Wookieepedia. Retrieved on April 21, 2022, from https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/The_Mystery_of_Chopper_Base
Palermo, E. (2015, September 11). Venomous, tree-dwelling spiders surprise scientists. NBC News. Available at https://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/venomous-tree-dwelling-spiders-surprise-scientists-n425756 (Accessed on April 21, 2022).
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