10 Terrifying Monsters That (We Hope!) Don't Exist

3. J€™ba Fofi

Arachnophobics amongst you, we serve notice to you in advance: SKIP THIS SECTION NOW! You have been warned. Imagine a tarantula, a big one. Now, multiply the size of that sucker by a factor of 60 or so. What you€™re now picturing should be something similar to the J€™ba Fofi, a creature sometimes reported by the people of The Congo. With a leg span of between 121 and 182CM (4 and 6ft), the J€™ba Fofi (literally €˜giant spider€™) is a startling beast indeed. This monster spider has been talked of in native stories for years and has been apparently sighted by at least two Westerners, who described it as being as big as a monkey (!). Similar creatures have also been spotted in The Amazon, Cameroon, Papua, New Guinea and, somewhat predictably, the United States. There is actually a natural precedent for spiders reaching large sizes (albeit not nearly is large as J€™ba Fofi is said to be). The species Nephila Jurassica is the largest known from fossil records, reaching a legspan of about 6CM, whilst the biggest living arachnids are The Giant Huntsman Spider (Heteropoda maxima) which has a 30CM legspan and The Goliath Birdeater (Theraphosa blondi) which has up to a 28CM legspan (but is possibly bigger in terms of body mass). In case you€™re wondering, €˜Mesothelae€™, the giant spider that was memorably featured in the beautifully vivid BBC documentary series Walking With Monsters, was actually drawn from a misidentified sea scorpion fossil and there is no scientific evidence that any spider ever grew to be that size (information for which we€™re sure you€™re rather thankful). So no, science does not recognise the existence of any truly giant spiders, past or present. However, as we have just discussed, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to the contrary... With so little of The Congo explored, J€™ba Fofi - which would easily be the biggest arachnid ever to crawl across the Earth - could definitely be out there somewhere, right now, spinning a 457CM (15ft, or greater) web, or building a dark burrow and simply biding its time, waiting to be discovered...