Black, hairy, and packing vicious, venom-soaked fangs, the burrowing arachnids common to the jungle around this bustling market town do not appear at first sight to be the caviar of Cambodia.



But for many residents of Skuon, the “a-ping” — as the breed of palm-sized tarantula is known in Khmer — are a source of fame and fortune in an otherwise impoverished farming region in the east of the war-ravaged southeast Asian nation. More about the spider-snacks here.