The brown tarantula is about the size of an apple or orange. University of Missouri-St. Louis scientist Becky Hansis-O’Neill and her team of students have been using an app to track their locations, tag and measure them, and learn how to protect their populations.

In a parking lot in a secret location outside St. Louis, Becky Hansis-O'Neill and her team prepared to search for Missouri's largest native spider.

They set off into the woods, hiking toward the spider's home. Right away, a member of the party ambled face-first into a huge, elaborate web, home of an Orb Weaver — nowhere near the size of the spider they were looking for.

They continued their search, climbing over a fallen tree and walking into the sunny, desert-like glade habitat where the object of their study lives. Hansis-O'

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