CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

This not-so-little lady was roaming around the house. She was low enough on the wall that I almost walked into her, but she wasn't aggressive and I caught her in the plastic container you see there, using a piece of thick cardboard to close the top. The trick is not to put your hand on the base of the container above the spider, where it will look like a predator about to strike. That causes the spider to panic. This one, we put outside to make her own way. She'll be around somewhere if one of the other spiders didn't eat her.

They do. A camera bag is a dark place. This one made me drop the lens it was sitting on. No, I didn't get bit. Of course, I was shaking, so most of the pictures I took straight after were blurred. This, one though, seems to indicate it might have been some kind of wolf spider. Unfortunately, these were the best I could do. We did get a vague measurement - my son held the ruler - so this one wasn't terribly big. But it was annoyed at being herded by a ruler and photographed.

Okay, so no properly scientific name this week, and I don't know what it's called. I took hundreds of shots of this poor little critter, who was sitting amidst a bunch of newish leaves on one of my least favourite bushes in the garden. The wind was blowing and I was using the sports setting on a zoom lens with manual focus. I think it was worth it to get to see this little gal up close:   She was very, very cute and I haven't seen her since. Anyone know what she is? She looks like a little hopping spider of some kind.

This is a whitetail spider. If you look very closely, you can see a faint white marking near the end of her abdomen that gives it the name. The sun glare is from the bathroom, she later headed into. That, as well as the long, almost cylindrical body and distinctive layout of the head and legs is a giveaway. As you can see, they are climbing spiders.      They also have a nasty habit of dropping onto things that pass below them - and biting them. They are quite poisonous. This one measured around 2.5-3 cm (approximately an inch) long and about 0.5 cm (or around 1/4-1/5 of an inch) across, which makes it probably female, and most definitely the biggest of these spiders I've seen in an urban environment. I've used a door jamb here to give you an idea of the size. Not my best photo, but I hope it helps in understanding the size. I've seen one larger, but not much, and that one was in a still-establishing housing development, in a crease in a pai...

So, I guess this comes under the heading of 'Things I do NOT want to see Inside': We worked out later that this one had probably been bitten by another spider, because she was very sluggish - not at all like a normal wolf spider. Since we have a little one and these are poisonous, we weren't too happy finding it inside.

Here is another of the eight-legged critters in my garden. This one startled me by running down the trunk of the tree I was pruning - again in late autumn. Needless to say, I was instantly distracted. This is a huntsman - the first one I've seen out in the garden. (Usually, they're running across a wall, or the ceiling.) I'm not sure if it's male of female. It stayed out for quite some time, so I took a lot of shots from a whole lot of different angles over the course of about an hour and a half. We encountered each other in the late afternoon. And the spider stayed around as the sun gradually faded. It was quite late by the time I went inside to cook dinner. It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Here is another of the eight-legged guests that live in my garden. I don't know what the first one is called, but I spent 2-3 hours one autumn day, stalking her while she fed. I came across her while she was feeding. She fed on this fly for some time. So I tried different angles and lenses.  She very obligingly came out of her leaf to chase down another fly. I was so excited!

For some reason, the eight-legged wildlife around my house is being surprisingly cooperative... in some cases, a little too cooperative for comfort.   "Good" Spider   Unidentified Garden Spider - (c) 2013 C.M. Simpson Outside (in the garden where it belongs); very small (less than half my little finger nail); probably not deadly; prefers to hide; will run from plastic ruler used in attempt to measure it (don't ask); Did I mention it's outside? "Bad" Spider Possible male mouse spider - (c) 2013 C.M. Simpson Inside (where it definitely does NOT belong); not so small (one to one and a half inches long); INSIDE!!!! poisonous, deadly to some, makes others extremely ill; will attack plastic container used in attempt to capture (also don't ask); possibly male mouse spider... need to work on positive identification in case someone gets bit; Did I mention it was INSIDE????? Plus, it looks like it's been chasing pa...

Australia has a lot of spiders that are deadly and might be accused of being ugly. The peacock spider is not one of them. Check out these you-tube clips proving that spiders can dance :-) Peacock Spider Videos Apologies for no pictures. It's late. I promise I'll do an artist's impression of one in chalk pastel tomorrow, and maybe provide a sneak peek at an idea the little gromits have spawned.