h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A couple of weeks ago, I received an amazingly funny email from my brother. It was an urban legend about a lethal spider that has adapted to live beneath toilet seats. I laughed at the content of the letter. Then I imagined people reading it, and checking under toilet seats for the rest of their lives. I laughed even harder.

Then I remembered there was a movie recently about urban legends, and I realized that they are a rather popular subject. In an experimental mood, I wrote a cover page for a collection of them, then implored to Peta for a mention on the home page.

I don't think I was prepared for the results. In only 24 hours, I've collected 12 new stories and a link to another researcher's collection of urban myths about tech support, plus I've been reminded of two other myths that I could add to the collection myself.

But this isn't the scary part. The scary part is that I, wallflower and social butterfly, have received TWO responses to my main page! How will I adjust to this newfound popularity? Stay tuned to this page; the next journal entry could well be titled "Nervous Breakdown."

*takes off white coat and hangs up butterfly net*
No sign of a breakdown yet. It has been two weeks now!

False alarm. Since that fateful day, people have gone back to abandoning my homepage, with you as the sole exception. And you've been poking around in my forums long enough that you no longer frighten me.

That was the plan...

he, he, he

Actually, the so-called urban myth about spiders living under toilet seats is not fictional.
Perhaps in America it is an uncommon phenomenon, but here in Australia there is a deadly spider called the Redback - a close relative of the Black Widow - that is known to live in such a place, particularly in outback Australia, but also in the suburbs.
In my primary school we had a particular problem with them living under the benches kids would sit on at lunch.
Fortunately, advances in medicine have meant that an antiveneme is commonly kept by doctors around the country.
They basically live in any small, dark space. If you leave your shoes outside, you would be wise to shake them out before you put them on...

But is it called a Blush Spider? Arachneus Glutius?

You've hit on the slightly true basis for the urban legend, but the story I put in the collection was very much an urban legend. Among the inaccuracies:

Arachius Glutius is fictional, and a poor joke, referring as it does to the glutius maximus, the latin name for your butt.

There is no Big Chappies restaurant in Chicago.

There is no Blare airport in Chicago, although there is an O'Hare.

The source of the story is given as JUMA, the Journal of the United Medical Assosciation. There is no such thing in the US, but there is a publication by the American Medical Assosciation known as JAMA.