This Spider’s Butt Looks Just Like Pikachu

A real life monster has a rear end shaped just like the shape of an iconic Pokemon. Earlier this week, Twitter user Jonathan Kolby posted a picture of a giant spider he found while in the field in Honduras.

The spider’s abdomen surprisingly had the same shape and coloration as Pikachu, right down to the black tipped “ears” and red spots on its “cheeks.” Of course, this Pikachu spider also has some gnarly looking spikes lining its abdomen, something that Pikachu’s cuddly cheeks are definitely missing.

What’s really crazy is that this spider can be found all over the United States. The spider is better known as an Arrow-shaped Micrathena, a type of spider that can be found all over the Eastern United States and Central America. They’re also known as an arrowhead orbweaver, a cousin to the spiders popularized by Charlotte’s Web. Only female micrathenas have the Pikachu-colored variations and are about twice the size of their (non-Pikachu butt shaped) male counterparts. It’s also just a bit over a centimeter long, which isn’t nearly as terrifying as the picture above suggests.

If you see one of these spiders land on you, don’t freak out! The Micrathena might look like it can deliver a pretty nasty shock, but its bites aren’t poisonous at all. You might get a small welt, but it won’t be much worse than a mosquito bite.

So, now we know that Pikachu wasn’t inspired from a cute mouse with batteries attached to its cheeks, but a horrific demon creature designed to scare arachnophobics around the world.