old battler

[miriam_e]

Had a visit from an old spider who clearly has been in a few battles. He has lost most of his legs on one side. I wonder what had been after him. Undoubtedly many animals would consider him a juicy tidbit. Life would be difficult for such a large spider. I don't think life expectancy would be very long. Hmmm... I wonder how long Huntsman spiders live. I must ask my Mum.

The pictures were taken in my kitchen. I noticed him just as I was about to turn out my lights, so I got a few snapshots before switching the lights off and retiring for the night. I don't know why he is covered in cobweb detritus. Perhaps he's just blundered through a web to eat one of the spiders that spin webs. There are plenty of those here. It is one of the things I like about huntsman spiders: they don't mess up the place with web. I have to periodically clear away the webs of all the other spiders. I hate wrecking their homes, but it would be a mass of web here if I didn't.

Comments

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Heheheh thanks. :)

Those are about the only two I have...
Oh, there is the one about the pet funnelweb spider I had as a kid.

The funnelweb spiders that live around Sydney are among the most deadly spiders in the world. I guess Mum & Dad weren't too keen on me having it. They imposed a rule that I couldn't have it in my bedroom -- it had to be kept outside. Next morning I found the large jar I housed it in, tipped over, and the spider nowhere to be found. Mum and Dad were suspiciously unconcerned that the spider might be loose.

Oh yeah, there is the one about the smart orb-weaver. My sister, Sue, told me about this. There was a spider that wove its web across the driveway every night, with a vertical anchor line that got broken by the car every morning. After some days of this, one morning Sue found the spider had woven its web across the driveway again as normal, but had run the vertical anchor line down, fastened it to a pebble, and hoisted the pebble up high enough that the car could pass underneath without damaging the web!!! How amazing is that??!

Spiders are truly wonderful.

[belegdel.livejournal.com]

pet funnelweb

Wow. Reports I've heard indicate funnelwebs are mean spirited, spiteful little buggers (along with being deadly).

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

My one never struck me as having any kind of personality. Perhaps I didn't really have it for long enough (thanks Mum & Dad!), but its seemed to me as being fully involved in surviving, with not much room for anything else.

Mind you, bullants definitely have different temperaments. The big, black, one-inch-long ones are quite mild, and avoid confrontation if they can, only chasing someone if they are quite close to their nest. The large, red ones are quite a bit more aggressive, and will chase an intruder to a much greater perimeter around their nest. The smaller "jumping jacks" are quite horrid little ants and will chase you whether you're close or not... at least the ones I tested years ago when I was a kid, reacted like that. I didn't test them in a number of localities, but my contact with large black bullants and smaller jumping jacks since then, have tended to reinforce my earlier experiences.

So perhaps different spiders do have different temperaments.

Hmmm... I adore little jumping spiders. They are so cute and smart and curious. The are full of personality. So maybe you are right.

[belegdel.livejournal.com]

heh. Jumpy spiders are too cute.

If you take into account the different "hunting" techniques, they would have to have different personalities. A huntsman that was content to hang about and wait for food to get stuck to the wall next to it wouldn't eat much :)