First appearance of crab spiders?

[scottenkainen]

Until recently, I would have assumed that the earliest appearance of giant crab spiders in D&D was the 1980 basic rules.

However, in the El Raja Key Archives DVD comes an encounter key, allegedly for Kuntz's 1973 El Raja Key castle maps, that includes references to crab spiders. So, does that mean a) crab spiders existed in a draft version of D&D earlier than the 1980 Moldvay edition, b) Rob Kuntz was himself the originator of the giant crab spider, or c) the encounter key included in the DVD was redone about 7 years later and the original encounter key no longer exists?

[Zenopus]

As the "crab spider", and even "giant crab spider", exist as names in the real world, another possibility to consider is that Kuntz and Moldvay independently created their own versions.

[derv]

Something to further ponder on, B1 (published in 1978) is the first module to be offered in the boxed sets starting in 1978. It would later be replaced with B2 in 1979 (prior to Moldvay Basic Box production in 1981). B1 itself would be revised in 1981. Part of this revision is the replacement of the designated "Huge Spider" with "Crab Spider".