Nosferatu spider

English
A Nosferatu spider, showing the supposedly vampiric markings.

Etymology

Calque of German Nosferatu-Spinne. Named for the resemblance of its markings to the vampire Count Orlok from the 1922 movie Nosferatu.

Noun

Nosferatu spider (plural Nosferatu spiders)

  1. Zoropsis spinimana, a relatively large hunting spider originally from southern Europe.
    • 2022 December 17, “Alien spiders in Switzerland – how worried should we be?”, in SWI swissinfo.ch‎:
      This autumn media reports and social media posts about the rapid spread of so-called Nosferatu spiders have caused unease throughout Switzerland.
    • 2023 September 23, “Scan of the month September – It’s spider season”, in Nikon‎:
      This month, Nikon Metrology’s Thomas Dreisbusch, Application Engineer X-ray & CT, has scanned a spider whose name alone causes fear and terror: the Nosferatu spider (Zoropsis spinimana).

Further reading
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