The not so itsy bitsy spider.

We get those yellow and black spiders here in Austin.
They make the most beautiful webs I have ever seen. They have a ' zipper; style down the center , and other odd tufts sometimes shaped like spiders ( like in the picture) sometimes they look like small bugs.. all around their webs.
They get to be about as big as a dinner plate ( leg span that is , not body size)
They are the Charlottes of the fields here.
Creppy muther flaaaaakers , but beautiful all the same.

i hear you, wolf. i'm both creaped out and fascinated by the critters. they are unlike anything else on this planet, weird wittle hairy ones.

maybe one of these days i will get brave enough to photograph one.

Here's an image from the University of Washington's Burke Museum... I give you the Giant House Spider... it is the size of a dinner plate:



You can honest-to-god hear their footfalls in a quiet room.

thanks...

my pants are now wet..



yeah, that is about how big these yellow and black ones can get.

I remember one time, about 4-5 years ago, I had just moved to Austin.
I was working in a nursing home that was basically in the middle of the forrest. Beautiful trees, fields, flowers.. as far as you could see.
Rumor had it that there were scorpions tarantulas under everything and were often found in the building.
I having never seen a tarantula went searching. ( stupid stupid me.)
Never found one. No matter how hard I looked.

One day, as I was leaving work, I was slowly pulling out of my parking space and up the drive way was this big black dog toy.
I turned my car to face it and pulled up slowly thinking I could lean out and grab it to throw it in the trash. Didnt want one of the residents to get their hands on it.
As I pulled up, one of the pieces of the toy stood straight in the air.
It was a leg..
I was about 3 car lengths away and i realized it was a tarantula.. and i sware.. its leg spread was about the size of my hubcap.
If I had taken the spider, pulled its legs perfectly straight, I am convinced it would have covered my hubcap no problem.
I heard its legs : tick..... tick.. tickticktick....tick ..tick: on the concrete as it walked even from where I was.

Scared the holy hell outta me..

LOL...



Yep. That would make a believer out of me, too. Luckily, I have never seen one of these outdoors. (And a big part of the reason I avoid the Great SW most of the time.)

"Tick... tick.... tick.."

A few years ago I was taking care of not just my kids but also my sister's three boys, Huey, Dewey & Louie. All of a sudden and out of nowhere one of these Giant Spiders plopped down and started running across the carpet. We all gasped and ran to the other side of the room. All except for Louie, the littlest nephew, who couldn't walk yet but was sitting up on the floor. We all held each other in horror as the spider clump, clump, clumped over towards Louie's butt... then hustled underneath the TV. Louie was nearly a goner and what could we have done? We think he farted and that's what saved him... who knows?

i don't think they bite, do they? that's why they're supposed to be a great alternative to hobos. you're actually supposed to be glad to have them in your house (the domestica or the gigantea) - tfooooey.

They don't bite... they just drag you off and suck all your life's juices out.

i'm a little too big. i'd rather gaze eye to eye with a gigantea than with the hobo though.
and preferably i'd rather not meet either as long as i live.

i now see spiders everywhere. even piffka's avatar starts resembling a spider to me now...

They say you're always within three feet of a spider. <looks around>

ack!


boomer, you said the web was non-sticky. that means it must have been a sheet or a funnel web. giganteas and domesticas weave those. but hobos probably, too.

Myth: The orb web (the round, spiral or "geometric" type of web) is a "normal" spider web.

Fact: Although orb webs are the most conspicuous webs (because they tend to be large and are often suspended in mid-air) they are not at all the most common type. In temperate regions, sheet webs are by far the most common, and cobwebs are also more abundant than orb webs. In some locations, funnel webs are also more common. Only in the tropics can orb webs equal other web types in abundance, but they still are rarely in the majority. So when you notice a spider web that is not a round orb, rest assured that it's perfectly normal.


There are 4 major types of spider webs. Each functions somewhat differently in prey capture. Sheet webs and funnel webs have no sticky silk.
http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/spidermyth/myths/orbweb.html

boomer, when you looked into your spider's eyes how many did you count?



tough love. you must pict an eye or two to gaze into, since they're scattered all around their heads. brrrr.

they look like star wars characters, don't they?

I was thinking the same thing.

orbweaver

look, orbweaver has a butt.

LOL!!!

lycosa