Mother Longlegs
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FEAR THE FOREST
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— Monarch reconnaissance video about the Mother Longlegs |
Mother Longlegs is a giant arachnid superspecies that first appeared in the 2017 Legendary Pictures film, Kong: Skull Island.
Name
The Mother Longlegs' name comes from "Daddy longlegs," a common nickname for various types of insects and arachnids. The "Mother" part of the name comes from the fact that Mother Longlegs is an all-female species.[4]
The Mother Longlegs' cryptozoological classification is not consistent. Their superspecies profile from the Discover Skull Island website simultaneously dubs them Mater Crura (likely derived from an Anglicized spelling of the Latin word māter meaning "mother," and crura, a form of the Latin word crūs meaning "leg") and Arachnida Acidosasa (derived from arachnida, the name of a class of chelicerate arthropods, and acidosasa, the name of a genus of East Asian bamboo). The creatures' bio provided on the Kong: Skull Island "Monarch Files 2.0" bonus feature instead uses Arachnida Malum (again coming from arachnida, as well as the Latin word malum meaning "evil"), and this is echoed, albeit with the Malum part decapitalized, in the Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure.
Design
Mother Longlegs are gigantic spider-like creatures that stand around 20 feet tall. They possess incredibly long legs that resemble bamboo stalks, allowing them to blend in seamlessly with the surrounding forests, with their legs posing as plants and their upper bodies held high above the canopy. Mother Longlegs' faces resemble skulls, being a light beige in color with large red eyes. In addition to their eight legs, Mother Longlegs possess two additional limbs located closer to their heads, which are equipped with pincer-like claws. A queen Mother Longlegs appeared in Skull Island: The Birth of Kong, significantly larger than the others and possessing a horned crest.[5]
Behavior
Mother Longlegs are carnivorous ambush predators[3] who use their environment to their advantage by being able to blend in with the bamboo forests of Skull Island when staying motionless. They were bolder in Skull Island: The Birth of Kong, raiding the Iwi village in broad daylight after Walter R. Riccio blasted an opening in the wall and attacking the much larger King Kong.
Origin
Monarch's superspecies profile of the Mother Longlegs presents the theoretical possibility that the creatures are a supermutation of the Opiliones order of arachnids.[3]
History
- Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Monsterverse
Kong: Skull Island
While Preston Packard and his men were passing through a dense bamboo forest on Skull Island, one of the soldiers was impaled through his mouth by the leg of a Mother Longlegs. The other soldiers looked up at the canopy and saw the colossal arachnid's body moving across the treetops. They immediately opened fire on the creature, which retaliated by trying to stab the men with her legs and using the tentacle-like structures in her mouth to try and eat them. The soldiers retaliated by slicing off the tips of the Mother Longlegs' limbs with machetes and firing on her cephalothorax, with the latter finally toppling her. Packard approached the fallen creature and fired several rounds into her head with his pistol until she died.
Abilities
Camouflage
Mother Longlegs are perfectly adapted for camouflage in the dense forests of Skull Island. With their limbs resembling bamboo stalks and their bodies held high above the forest canopy, Mother Longlegs blend in seamlessly with the forest, allowing them to attack unaware prey that passes through their territory.[4]
Legs
The Mother Longlegs' legs are razor-sharp, and can be used as deadly spears. Once a Mother Longlegs uses its legs to immobilize its prey, it will use them to inject venom into its victim's body and start to absorb nutrients from it.[4]
Tendrils
The Mother Longlegs can release muscular tendrils from their underbelly to ensnare immobilized prey and drag them into their open stomach.[3]
Reproduction
Due to being an all-female species, the Mother Longlegs are capable of asexual reproduction.[4]
Weaknesses
The Mother Longlegs is not particularly durable, as its legs are easily severed by knives and bullets. Once the Mother Longlegs' legs were removed and it was brought to the ground by gunfire, she was swiftly killed by Packard. Multiple Mother Longlegs were nowhere near a match for Kong, who easily killed all of them in a relatively short struggle.
Video games
- Evony: The King's Return (2022) - Android, iOS
Books
Kong and Me
A Mother Longlegs blended in with the trees as Kong and Jia explored the forest.
Comics
Skull Island: The Birth of Kong
"Over the Rainbow"
Several Mother Longlegs entered the Iwi village in 1995 after Walter R. Riccio blew open the wall with explosives. The creatures killed several people, including Evgenij Medov, before Kong arrived to save the villagers. Kong easily killed all of the Mother Longlegs and the man responsible for bringing them into the village, then left after meeting Aaron Brooks face-to-face.
Gallery
- Main article: Mother Longlegs/Gallery.
Videos
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In other languages
- Japanese: Bamboo-Spider (バンブー・スパイダー Banbū Supaidā)
Trivia
- The Mother Longlegs leg that nearly impales Joe Reles (Eugene Cordero) was a practical effect. Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts came within "millimeters" of stabbing Cordero in the crotch while demonstrating how he wanted the shot to look.[6]
- The Mother Longlegs may be a reference to the crab-spiders from the cut "Spider Pit" sequence in the original King Kong.
- The Mother Longlegs has been given three different scientific names in official media.
References
This is a list of references for Mother Longlegs. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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