From Wikipedia: "Throughout history, there have been many cultural depictions of spiders in popular culture, mythology and symbolism. [...] The spider has symbolized patience due to its hunting technique of setting webs and waiting for prey, as well as mischief and malice for its poison and the slow death it causes, its venom often seen as a curse.[1]"

This spider was made a long time ago when the Glest Advanced Engine crew started looking at the possibility of non-player units (like creeps, fauna, etc.).  This model and texture were made by Wciow and the rig and animations were made by me.  As it is for an RTS, it is quite low-poly, weighing in at only 468 triangles.  Animations include idle, walking, attacking, and dying.

While it's giant in Glest, I supposed there's no reason it couldn't be a normal-sized spider.

Edit: This now includes a FLARE-ready version of the spider with altered animations, whose sprite sheets can be found at http://opengameart.org/content/spider-flare-sprite-sheets