Ticklike Spider

October 9, 2023.

Halloween spiders are endlessly cute to me: usually staring blankly with beady eyes and propped up by gross, hairy legs covered in the cheapest faux-fur around. Any attempts of these things to be scary are foiled by their charms. A Halloween spider is rarely representative of any particular type spider; Sometimes these weird spiders are hardly even "spiders" at all-- just a shadow of the genre of creature. This is true of the first Halloween spider in my collection, identified as a spider by its pricetag and the eight legs iconic to spiders, but all other traits of the thing betray the idea that it is a spider.

This spider resembles a tick. Though ticks and spiders are arachnids, this creature lacks a segmented body that spiders have. The bulbous backside of this thing is covered in a thin, vaguely soft material, and the material underneath the skin it feels like it might be a dense foam of some kind. It has a sort of mane behind its head made of scruffy, grey and white hair. Its "fangs" may represent palps or chelicerae, and it has huge, orange eyes that stare right up at you. It has legs made of fuzzy black pipe cleaners, which are malleable enough that they can be posed or wrapped around something to hang the spider for decoration. The legs of ticks and spider usually have more than one bend in them, but this spider's legs are meant to be bent out of shape, anyway.
The ticklike spider is very cute. It is a small spider, easily the smallest of the bunch, and probably just about a foot wide if all its legs were stretched out. Though not representative of a real-life spider, it is definitely a Halloween spider, and makes me feel festive. I bought this thing from Target during last year's Halloween season (2022), and it kept me company in my dorm room throughout the year. Love this spider.