Spider hid in the ISS space station

The organization World Extreme Medicine, which includes physician and astronaut Barrett, posted a photo of the dark, eight-legged specimen on Facebook. It will return to Earth soon, the text says with a wink. The astronaut’s reaction was initially unknown.

Here you see a picture of the discovered spider.

Der Spiegel forwarded the image to a spider expert at the Natural History Museum in Berlin. According to him, it is difficult to determine the exact species based on a photo alone. But he suspects that it could be a holey tube spider. In fact, they like to hide in small shelters.

Entered Florida?
The relatives live between stones, in cracks in walls or in crevices in rocks. They can live up to ten years. This species is distributed worldwide, especially in the tropics and subtropics such as parts of Africa, Australia and Oceania. According to the expert, a well-known species of hole tube spider also lives in the US. It is therefore conceivable that the spider was transported into space from Florida as a stowaway in a space capsule.

Actually, something like this should not happen, since the safety and hygiene rules for transport to the ISS are strict. For example, fresh food is only brought on board in small quantities, reports the Standaard online.

Bite safely
A bite from the perforated tube spider is not dangerous to humans in any case – at least if no pathogens are introduced. It is unlikely that the specimen that was in Barrett’s enclosure survived the journey into space. Her remains were reportedly stored in a freezer.