Spider internet hoax article review

Oh, what a tangled web we weave: the anatomy of an internet spider hoax.

Richard S Vetter and P Kirk Visscher

American Entomologist Volume 46 Number 4 winter 2000

This article is about how a man, Steve Heard craftily created and internet hoax and how this was revealed to be so.

In 1999 Steve Heard created an e-mail written in the style of a newspaper article warning the recipients of the South American Blush spider (named after its red colouration). To give the article an extra boost of “credibility” Heard created a scientific name for his imaginary spider; Arachnius gluteus. The article claimed that this spider had somehow found its way into the women’s toilets at a restaurant and hid under the rim and bit people on the bottom when they sat down to relieve themselves. The e-mail also noted that five women who were bitten died after all showing the same symptoms.

Although Heard had written in a lot of clues that should have given away that the story was a complete farce. For example the airport, medical journal, restaurant and aviation authority do not exist and the scientific name loosely translates to bottom spider. Gluteus is the Latin word for the muscles in the bottom and arachnius is derived from the word arachnid the class which the spiders belong to.

This hoax was very successful, although Heard was surprised, as he played to peoples fears and weaknesses; arachnophobia, fear for their health and others and ignorance.