IT’S not every day you bump into a 33-ft-wide tarantula that looks like your worst nightmare from a horror film!

But these children from St Thomas of Canterbury primary school came face to face with this fearsome giant spider at Chester Zoo.

They were enjoying a sneak peek of the huge tarantula at an exhibition featuring 13 giant animatronic insects – including a 24ft-long scorpion and a man-sized ladybird.

The larger than life creations have been custom built for the zoo by a top animation studio in the USA and it is be the first time they will have ever been seen together, anywhere in the world, when BUGS! opened to visitors this month.

Conservationists from the zoo hope the event will provide a showcase for invertebrates and the need to conserve threatened species.

Visit www.chesterzoo.org/bugs for more details.

DID YOU KNOW: Amazing facts about bugs:

• A dragonfly can fly at speeds of up to 34mph.

• A grasshopper can jump over 20 times its own body length.

• The weight of insects eaten by spiders every year, is greater than the total weight of the entire human population.

• A house fly 'hums' in the key of F.

• Little Miss Muffet of the nursery rhyme really existed. She was the daughter of Dr. Mouffet who believed spiders had healing powers when eaten.

• It's only female wasps that have stings.

• The longest living-insect is the termite queen. They have been known to survive for at least 50 years and some scientists believe they may live to 100.

• There are more insects in one square mile of field than there are people in the world.