In which spiders are referred to but do not actually feature

[soc_puppet]

So after reading this article about the (lack of) brown recluse spiders in California, it occurred to me that I didn't actually know what brown recluse spiders look like! The article linked doesn't have any pictures itself, so I decided to Duck Around for some and learn me a little more, given that I apparently live in brown recluse range.

I stopped briefly at Wikipedia to get the basics, then went directly to images, whereupon I found an image that looked, in fact, very little like brown recluses had been described in Wikipedia, or the image I'd found there. Out of horrified curiosity, I clicked through to the page the image was found on, and was greeted with a veritable treasure trove of very obviously Gen AI spider pics. One of the spiders had eleven legs!

Anyway, don't trust the website Spiderzoon for anything, I guess, because if those are the photos that the article writers are claiming to have taken themselves, well. The reality they're photographing doesn't line up with this one, so the information likely isn't viable in this universe, either.

Comments

[gwydion]

I used to be able to look up a rash or the like to see if it needed a Doctor's visit. AI has made that impossible and I'm angry about it.

[soc_puppet]

Right? This! Is! Not! Okay!