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

[belegdel.livejournal.com]

DSL/server_install_files/Sol10-03082006.xml

Yup. My wife once walked through the web of a big web weaver spider (St Andrews Cross? something like that) in our driveway. As we got onto our porch she realised the spider was in her hair. After a quick arachnaleptic fit, said spider flew off and landed on the porch with a *splot*.

It promptly was pounced on by a huntsmen. The fight was kind of comical - a rolling ball of legs. We didn't stick around to see who won (since we figured the huntsmen was odds on winner).

[belegdel.livejournal.com]

DSL/server_install_files/Sol10-03082006.xml

Where the hell did that come from? yeesh. I meant to qoute:

I am pretty sure that huntsman spiders prey upon other spiders.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Wow! That is amazing. I'd have loved to see it... even though I like St. Andrews Cross orb weavers. Heaven knows how many orb weaver webs I've walked through. I hate that, and must admit it panicks me a little. I've never been bitten by one though. I know I'm anthropomorphising here, but I get the impression they think "Oh crap. Another bloody human blundering through my nice web. I'm outa here."

Yeah, I'd figure the huntsman to win too. They're kinda muscular.

[belegdel.livejournal.com]

Web dwellers are so ungainly out of their webs too. Mind you, I guess it would come down to which one got the fangs in first.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Good point about web dwellers being ungainly. Delicate too. All the huntsman would have to do is grab and overpower it... and avoid the fangs. :)

Have you ever noticed how web dwellers tend to bite their catches? They throw several loops of silk over them to ensure their prey doesn't get free, then they get a foot or leg of the poor unfortunate insect and bite it for a while, injecting poison. After that they retreat and wait for the struggles to die down.

Not nice, but fascinating.