Shop worker finds 'spider with 21 legs' in lettuce and begs experts for answers

21 November 2023 , 23:00

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The staff member came across the bone-chilling black bug on a piece of lettuce (Image: Facebook /Triangle News)

A supermarket worker posted a horrifying pic of what appears to be a 21-legged spider on a piece of lettuce - and begged experts to reveal the 'bug's' true identity.

The staff member came across the bone-chilling black bug perched on a lettuce leaf in the store in Eastbourne, East Sussex. A friend who works in the same store then took to a Facebook group devoted to insects to ask what the eerie creature could be.

Posting in the Facebook group Entomemeology, which discusses insects and invertebrates, she begged for answers. It turned out to be neither a bug or arachnid, and was in fact the remains of a plant that had grown alongside the romaine lettuce.

She posted: "So I work at a grocery store and a co-worker had sent me this... what on earth is this? If it even is a bug?? Or are we just tripping - we've seen some gross stuff but this is topping it."

And after the true identification was revealed, she added: "Edit: Thank you to those who were nice about this and gave me a good laugh! The rest of you need to chill about someone asking something they don't know but my team and I can rest and work again."

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Followers postulated that the black sun-like thing could be someone's false eyelashes, an alien seedling or an oversized piece of the Covid virus. Referring to Stranger Things, another added: "It's the spawning spore of the upside down, we're doomed!"

The original poster then decided "I think it might be a partially rotted seed pod from something else, but bug-wise, I'd be between a spider with too many legs and centipede with not enough body." One poster finally cracked the code and said: "That's the bloom holder part of a dandelion and dandelion fuzzy seeds," with others also agreeing.

The black item was indeed a very dead dandelion seed holder, with another saying: "It looks like a seed pod or part of a flower like a dandelion that has fluffy seeds."

Zesha Saleem