Pic

[Mick Brown]

I was sitting here bored & hot, so I went outside to cool down, nearly had
a heart attack when I ran into this little chap, then I thought why not
take his photo.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3143307


Mick Brown
www.photo.net/photos/mlbrown

[googlegroups@sensation.net.au]

Mick Brown wrote:
> I was sitting here bored & hot, so I went outside to cool down,
nearly had
> a heart attack when I ran into this little chap, then I thought why
not
> take his photo.
>
> http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3143307

That's a fairly scary looking guy, particularly because I also live in
Roxburgh Park! How big was the spider, it's hard to tell scale from
your pic.

I was wandering around the old golf course that the Craigieburn bypass
cuts through and frequently found myself stopping suddenly as I almost
walked into a spider web.

[Mick Brown]

googlegroups@sensation.net.au wrote in news:1109189881.904709.168960
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

>
> Mick Brown wrote:
>> I was sitting here bored & hot, so I went outside to cool down,
> nearly had
>> a heart attack when I ran into this little chap, then I thought why
> not
>> take his photo.
>>
>> http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3143307
>
> That's a fairly scary looking guy, particularly because I also live in
> Roxburgh Park! How big was the spider, it's hard to tell scale from
> your pic.
>
> I was wandering around the old golf course that the Craigieburn bypass
> cuts through and frequently found myself stopping suddenly as I almost
> walked into a spider web.
>
>

He was a little bigger than a 50 cent piece. It's the first one I have
seen around home. I have seen heaps of their cousin, the "Golden Orb
Weaver" around the bush but never one that looked like this one.

I had a look this morning, the interesting thing he has packed up his web
and curled up in a leaf of the tree. Maybe they only come out at night.

I'm more concerned at the amount of white tails we have around here...and
the bloody ants.

It would be interesting to wonder around the suburb getting shots of the
local "fauna"

Mick

[Justin Thyme]

"Mick Brown" <nmcs_remove_@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
news:Xns9607603381F1Anmcsbigpondnetau@61.9.191.5.. .
> googlegroups@sensation.net.au wrote in news:1109189881.904709.168960
> @z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:
>
>>
>> Mick Brown wrote:
>>> I was sitting here bored & hot, so I went outside to cool down,
>> nearly had
>>> a heart attack when I ran into this little chap, then I thought why
>> not
>>> take his photo.
>>>
>>> http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3143307
>>
>> That's a fairly scary looking guy, particularly because I also live in
>> Roxburgh Park! How big was the spider, it's hard to tell scale from
>> your pic.
>>
>> I was wandering around the old golf course that the Craigieburn bypass
>> cuts through and frequently found myself stopping suddenly as I almost
>> walked into a spider web.
>>
>>
>
> He was a little bigger than a 50 cent piece. It's the first one I have
> seen around home. I have seen heaps of their cousin, the "Golden Orb
> Weaver" around the bush but never one that looked like this one.
>
> I had a look this morning, the interesting thing he has packed up his web
> and curled up in a leaf of the tree. Maybe they only come out at night.
The most recent Australian Geographic has an article about australian
spiders. Most of the web spinning spiders (orb's, cross spiders etc), respin
their web daily. They actually eat the old web for the nutrients it
contains.
The good news is - if it spins a neat web it isn't particularly dangerous.
Supposedly, the bite of the web-spinners is at worst similar to a green-ant
(I still don't want to get bitten to find out). It's the little bastards who
line their holes with web, or have the messy webs that you've got to watch
out for.
>
> I'm more concerned at the amount of white tails we have around here...and
> the bloody ants.
>
> It would be interesting to wonder around the suburb getting shots of the
> local "fauna"
>
> Mick

[Andrew Hennell]

>>I had a look this morning, the interesting thing he has packed up his web
>>and curled up in a leaf of the tree. Maybe they only come out at night.

Colloquially known as "moon spiders" where I used to live - they vanish
in the day (eat their webs), and only come out at night. Annoying for
arachnophobic horse riders like me - no time to pull up before going
through the web when riding at dusk or dawn. The little buggers would
get their bearings, run up your chest and jump off a shoulder.

>>I'm more concerned at the amount of white tails we have around here...and
>>the bloody ants.

White-tail spiders are much mailigned - A case of "Their myth is worse
than their bite"!

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s927439.htm

They're a 'hunting spider', which means rather than construct a web &
wait, they go out looking for their prey, including other spiders.

Over 130 documented cases of bites where the whitetail was captured and
positively identified (thanks to their habit of liking things we like...
warm beds, clothes left on the ground, etc). Myth busted.

Ants, on the other hand, are evil little buggers. It's not their bite,
it's the acid they then squirt onto the broken skin. Best remedy is
braken fern. Rip a fern out of the ground, 'mush' up the stem by
twising it around till it breaks in two, and apply the moist end of the
stem to the bite. Works faster than stingoes :)

>>It would be interesting to wonder around the suburb getting shots of the
>>local "fauna"

If you have bushland nearby, I find there's nothing more relaxing than
sitting around for a few hours in the hope of snapping some wildlife, or
letting the natural setting reveal itself to the camera. <= relevant
photo topic!

Andrew