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The Guy Who Said a Spider Burrowed Under His Skin? Experts Say...

The Guy Who Said a Spider Burrowed Under His Skin? Experts Say...

"Defies logic."

The frightening story about a spider that reportedly burrowed through an Australian man's surgery scar and left a disturbing red trail up his stomach, might not be a completely accurate account, according to some arachnid experts.

The stomach selfie of 21-year-old Dylan Thomas has gone viral around the globe after doctors at Bali International Medical Center apparently figured out his "mystery condition" was caused by a spider living under his skin for three days.

“Well after running tests and putting things inside my stomach they finally found out it was a tropical spider that’s been living inside of me for the last 3 days, managed to get it out luckily,” he wrote on Facebook. “Haven’t felt so violated in my life before! Just glad it’s all over.”

But the whole thing could have been caused by a different organism or be a complete fake, according to some.

"I think this is extremely suspect, unusual and likely not possible," Christopher Buddle, associate professor at McGill University's Department of Natural Resource Sciences, told io9. "Simply put: it is not plausible and I can think of no valid reason why a spider might 'crawl beneath skin through a scar'. The claim that it was 'feeding and moving up through the scar tissue' defies logic and defies what we know about the biology of spiders. I am also sceptical because the 'evidence' (the spider itself) is not presented."

Another scientist expressed skepticism over the situation as well.

[I]n general this is impossible and there is no reason that a spider would do that," Dr. Charles Griswold, Schlinger Curator of Arachnology (Emeritus) at the California Academy of Sciences, told io9.

While another organism — perhaps a tick or mite — could "'possibly' be 'associated' with something like this," Buddle said, according to io9, it at least was "certainly not a spider."

Thomas did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheBlaze.

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