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]

The huntsmen obviously weren't eating the redbacks

Interesting. Maybe the redbacks are too dangerous.

[Cockroaches have] an instant death sentence in my house.

Death sentence for being nearsighted! Nobody can accuse you of overreaction, can they. :)

Awwww... ants are waaay cute. They are the best of all. When I was a kid I used to spend hours squatted on the edge of our 2-meter diameter red-ant (or meat-ant) nest. They were so cool. I swear they knew I wasn't there to hurt them. They were very gentle ants and would tolerate me there just watching them. Occasionally one of the less bright members would try to bite at my toes, but all I had to do was softly discourage it and all was well again.

We used to tip any waste food that we and our dog didn't want, onto the edge of the nest for them. The nest grew so large and successful that one day it split in half. Somehow half the members decided to up and leave. They made a highway through the bush cleared of leaves and twigs and for a few days travelled back and forth moving house. Eventually the new nest was up and running and didn't seem to have any further contact with the original. It was never as big or successful as the first nest though... perhaps because of our continued practice of feeding the old nest (what can I say, we were fond of it), though I did share stuff out with the new nest from time to time.

Hmmm... just re-reading that... am I weird?