just for fun

[lank]

awesome stories (and that last macro)!

golden orb weavers are usually large when they're about three inches across (including legs). this one looks like three inches in the body alone! they produce an unusually strong, sticky web that has a golden colour in the sunlight, and they don't actively hunt. as far as i know they're not especially dangerous - never been bitten by one and don't plan to be. like most spider species, the female is the monster you see dominating the web, and it's not unusual to see spindly, tiny, fragile little males hanging around elsewhere on a large web.

everyone knows that the sydney funnel web spider is considered the most dangerous in australia. its venom is only dangerous to primates (of all mammals!), and they like to occupy untidy heaps of clothes on the floor (usually in the northern suburbs, lucky for me). little known, though, is the fact that the funnel web endemic to my home area in the northern rivers region of NSW is even more toxic and venomous than the sydney funnel web. it's considered less dangerous because of the lower population density there. i never knew that until recently.

not that you'd let one of them get anywhere near you - they're aggressive, ugly, dangerous looking spiders. once caught in a plastic take away container we put any spiders we don't want to return to the garden into the freezer for an easy death.

here are some shots of such. the first two were frozen first, but the third one was (at that stage) alive and well on our back patio.

[Frumius]

Yikes. Let's put some of those in with some black widows. I bet those things would make widowers of the black widows' mates.

[vinylrake]

aiiiiieeee! Yikes, those funnel web spiders are &*(^%%$ creepy looking. Not to be too myth-centric but they look kind of like those weird creatures in the DreamSeedz conversion.

[HedgeSnake]

I've seen specials (probably on Discovery Channel) on the world's most dangerous spiders and the funnel web is always at the top of the list.

Those pictures are incredible... MAN ARE THOSE THINGS UGLY!!! AND SCARY!!!

I certainly will crap myself if I ever see one of those crawling toward me.

Lank - how big were those things???

I swear - it looks like it has 10 legs because its fangs are so large (at least I think those must be fangs)... but there are those 2 bumps in the middle which may be fangs... what the heck are those fifth pair of things if not legs???

VR - I just overnighted a funnel web to you... I didn't want the same snail mail delay for my thank you present.

[lank]

spiders actually have ten limbs, but the foremost pair are usually small (small enough not to be noticed or counted as legs), used to manipulate food into the mandibles, rather than to walk.

those funnel webs are probably about 1.5 to 2 inches long at most. i'm not afraid of spiders, but even they make me worried when i see them.