If you live in a big city and somehow weren't a little creeped out by spiders before, you definitely will be now.
According to a new study out of Australia, spiders get bigger and multiply faster when they live in the city. Cue the giant spider nightmares.
Researchers from the University of Sydney found that golden orb weaver spiders living near heavily urbanized areas in Sydney tend to be larger, better fed and have more offspring than their country-dwelling counterparts.
To come to this terrifying conclusion, the study's authors collected 222 female golden orb weavers from different places around Sydney and measured each area's urbanization based on qualities like leaf-litter cover, grass coverage and amount of hard surfaces, such as concrete.
The researchers then measured the spiders' body size, fat reserves and ovary weight to determine their reproductive capacity. And, sure enough, the more urban the area, the bigger, fatter and more potentially fertile the spiders were. Lovely.
One of the study's authors told The Atlantic's CityLab they believe two factors present in most cities are responsible for this so-called superspider trend.
To find out the two factors responsible, watch this Newsy video.
