Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Spiders and Spiders in Horror Fiction?
6 questions to test your knowledge of spiders and spider horror fiction
Are you one of the 5% of people in the world with arachnophobia?
Look up now, at the corners of your ceiling. Can you see a spider? A round, bloated torso with eight oh so skinny legs sticking out? A hairy face squinting at you through all those eyes? So many eyes!
Do you wince or cry out in horror when you walk through spider webs or cobwebs? On a side note, did you know that a cobweb is more-often-than-not an abandoned web? So if there’s a creepy dude still living in there, you should probably call it a spider web, not a cobweb.
Anyway, whether you like spiders or not, see how you go with these 6 spider-filled quiz questions.
Contents
1. Warm-up spider question
How long did the oldest known spider live?
About 10 years
Nope. Try again.
About 16 years
Nope. Try again.
About 43 years
Yes. According to Guinness World Records, the female spider was a type of trapdoor spider first documented in Australia in 1974. She was still alive in 2016, which made her a minimum of 43 years old. It’s believed that a parasitic wasp may have killed her sometime after 2016.
2. Book: This Book is Full of Spiders (2012) by David Wong
In the Epiprologue, what’s in the driver’s seat of the crashed military truck?
A spider
Nope. Try again.
A GI Joe action figure
Yes. There’s a GI Joe action figure in the driver’s seat with the seat belt still around it. There are also GI Joe action figures in the back of the truck guarding the mysterious box.
A teddy bear
Nope. Try again.
What this book’s about
This is the 2nd book in the John Dies at the End series. People are being taken over by monstrous spider-like creatures and John, David, and Amy have to stop the military from wiping their town off the map.
3. Movie: Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)
What was the theory for why the tarantulas were creating the massive spider hills on Colby’s farm?
A queen spider
Nope. Try again.
They were aliens
Nope. Try again.
Pesticides
Yes. Diane Ashley, the spider expert, theorised that overuse of pesticides had killed the spiders’ natural food supply, so the tarantulas were converging and working together to kill larger animals. Strangely enough, the mayor orders them to spray pesticides to kill the spiders, dismissing Diane’s idea of using birds and rats to kill them.
What this movie’s about
A veterinarian investigates the strange deaths of several farm animals. It soon becomes clear that massive gatherings of tarantulas are working together to kill animals and people.
4. Short story: The Spider (1908) by Hanns Heinz Ewers
What time did the deaths occur in Room No. 7 of the hotel?
Between 4pm and 5pm, Friday
Nope. Try again.
Between 5pm and 6pm, Friday
Yes. The travelling salesman, the artist, and the ex-marine sergeant all died between 5pm and 6pm on Friday afternoons.
Between 6pm and 7pm, Friday
Nope. Try again.
What this story’s about
Three mysterious suicides occur on three subsequent Friday afternoons in Room 7 of the small Hotel Stevens in Paris. A medical student volunteers to stay in the room to determine what caused the deaths.
Read it for free on Project Gutenberg Australia.
5. Movie: Lavalantula (2015)
What is the name of Colton’s film stuntman friend who gives him a lift after the tour bus he stole blows up?
Pirate Jack
Yes. Pirate Jack gives Colton a lift. They’re fine until a lava vein in the road punctures a tyre. Spiders chase them into a museum where they meet a scientist who tells them that the spiders are causing the volcanic eruptions and the only way to stop them is to kill the Queen spider.
Jumping Jack
Nope. Try again.
Jack Box
Nope. Try again.
What this movie’s about
An earthquake hits Southern California releasing huge fire-spitting spiders onto the land. Armed with only a shotgun, a washed-up movie star has to find his family and save the world before it’s too late.
6. Book: The Hatching (2016) by Ezekiel Boone
Where is the first death by spider?
The Amazon
Nope. Try again.
South Africa
Nope. Try again.
Peru
Yes. Henderson, the large American tourist, dies just outside Manu National Park in Peru.
What this book’s about
This is the first of a spider apocalypse horror trilogy. A tourist dies in Peru, then other seemingly unrelated incidents happen around the world. Then a mysterious package is delivered to a laboratory in Washington D.C.
7. Bonus spider question
What colour is spider blood in real life?
Red
Nope. Try again.
Black
Nope. Try again.
Blue
Yes. Whereas humans use haemoglobin to transport oxygen around the body, spiders use hemocyanin. In hemocyanin, copper binds the oxygen rather than iron. Spider blood appears blue because hemocyanin absorbs all colours except blue, which it reflects.
Published: 9 September 2022
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