Arachnids Of Unsettling Size
Posted by: ryno in Photography, chilli plants, gardening, nature, spidersAs previously mentioned, this blog is sponsored by Dirty Great Spiders.
Herself isn’t really fond of them, and will do the cartoon-style Standing On Chairs And Hollering Loudly if confronted by a TML1.
I don’t like ‘em much either: there was the time this Huntsman Spider was hiding in my Saturday-night-go-clubbing shirt, back in the days of the First Flat.
(Huntsman image from here, where Tesla coils and all sorts of Wonderful Stuff may be seen. Do visit!)
The bite, dead-centre on my back, didn’t kill me, but everything went s—l—o—w— and kind of rainbowy round the edges. Not fun I’d like to repeat, anyway.
But I digress, as is my wont. Today I was out taking a few photos of my pepper plants,
(you get the drift), when I walked round the corner and nearly ran into this:
Oh, she was big. She nearly ate the sun from the sky!
Well, maybe I exaggerate, but she was a large spider.
Beautifully marked!
The boyfriend?
Compare sizes
A smaller spider was in the web. I presume he was her mate, as he was negotiating the web without any trouble, and she wasn’t inclined (for now, anyway) to regard him as a potential dinner.
In the far left you can see one of her neighbours…
The neighbour had an impressive web, too…
… but the next spider along had a huge egg sac.
Anyway, that’s about it. I’m going up to the house now, walking with one arm raised in front of my face.
G’night, Both My Readers™!
TFF™0
0 Those Fauna-loving Footnotes™.
1 Too Many Legs!
Entries (RSS)
May 13th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Brad hates those spiders. He’s very insect-phobic, though he has been known to throw himself on less scary insects to save them from other kids in the schoolyard.
At least I’ve convinced him to only knock their webs down if they’re inconveniently placed.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
May 19th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Oh oh that was fun. :)
I should try to get some pictures of some of the spiders I’ve been seeing lately. I’ve picked up some free fire wood that is literally several decades old and as such has become home to many invertebrates. Spiders here don’t grow all that big and these are the biggest I’ve ever seen in this area.
May 19th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Yes please! I loves my spider pictures.
I may see if I can find one of the tiny garden spiders with black & white bodies, and orange legs, who hang around among my pepper plants. They’re beautifully marked.