The scuttling under doors spider
Alan’s recent post about a crab spider reminded me that I never followed up on my promise to talk about Brazilian giant flattened spiders. True, I haven’t exactly been deafened by people wanting to hear the story, but since when did I write things that other people wanted to read? Despite the earlier billing, this spider wasn’t exactly giant, but it was big by the standards of British spiders. I should also say that, while I’m generally not frightened of spiders, invertebrates aren’t really my thing, and I don’t like spiders of unknown species and biting propensity creeping up on me1.
My colleague and I had been working quietly on the balcony of the hotel room, when we suddenly saw this big, flat, grey, ghost-like spider. Our first instincts were solidly scientific — we took the photograph you see above, complete with carefully placed binoculars for scale (the diameter of the binocular is about 4cm). This was swiftly followed by a very non-scientific, big-girl’s-blouse moment when we flicked it gently but firmly off the balcony with a long ruler.
A few hours later, I turned my head slightly and saw the same species of spider (perhaps even the same individual, back for revenge!) a few centimetres behind my head, sitting on the wall of the chalet in the perfect position to hop onto my neck. Eeek. I didn’t scream, but I did move away from the wall fairly sharply. We stood at a safe distance and looked at the spider, speculating about its unusual flattened body plan, and coming to the unwelcome conclusion that it was perfectly adapted for slipping underneath closed doors. There followed a lot of activity in which ring binders, books and other stacks of paper where jammed into the gap under the closed door to form a spider exclusion zone. I spent the rest of the evening looking nervously over my shoulder at the spider on the wall, not sure whether I would be more relieved to find it still there (where I could see it), or gone to an unknown location.
Now that the memory is several months old — and the spider itself is safely several thousand kilometres away — I’d quite like to know what species it is, and whether I was worrying about nothing.
1 Before anyone else points this out, yes, I do know that very few spiders will bite a human unless provoked or in imminent danger of death. It’s just that there’s something about a big, unfamiliar spider that tends to override this knowledge in a primeval way. ↑
1
When I was back living with my dad a while back, we had a very large spider in the house, which was only seen at night. I nicknamed him Walter. One evening I saw Walter scuttling across the polished wooden floor in the hall a bit more slowly than normal, and on closer inspection found he was dragging a small bundle of silk-encased housefly. I thought, "bless him". "Walter's tidying up".
by Michael Houghton @ 13/02/2007 9:35 pm • Permalink •
2
I quite like spiders, but similarly to you I suspect: only where I expect to see them.
We regularly have some super-cool jumping spiders inside at this time of year (late summer). They are a harmless yet infallible source of entertainment, particularly when they start fighting.
Unfortunately I can't help you with the spider... it's a very impressive specimen though.
by Alan @ 13/02/2007 11:45 pm • Permalink •
3
You can't argue with a few hundred thousand years of human evolution. I don't care how small the bloody thing is if I was in a jungle/desert/somewhere without an underground system, I'd move fairly sharpish too. I wonder how many Australian explorers' last words were "ooh, what a pretty snake/spider/jellyfish/plant/stone/stream/pond/amphibian. Ouch, arghhhhhhhh" (is there anything in that country that isn't poisonous). Rain forests just strike me as places with more opportunities for something to pop out and bite you. Give me a glacier anyday.
by Ian @ 14/02/2007 8:50 am • Permalink •
4
I myself am quite proud of my first, and much dreaded encounter with a leech on my person. While drinking a much needed beer after a short intoductory walk in a malaysian rain forest, I accidentely discovered a squishy baloon on my shoulder, which promptly fell off. I am quite proud that, despite my years of expectation and fantasizing, I did not jump up and start screaming hysterically, which I was sure I would do (everyman, like Winston Smith, has his breaking point). I however i did put off checking my underwear region for as long as possible and for a more private location to do it in. Despite my manly reaction to THE leech,under a next day stroll of 10 kilometers (I just want to mention that a rain forest can be very, very boring scenic-wise, even for a landscaper) my usual "crawlonthegroundandtakephotos" style of tourism was severly curtailed. As far as other rainforest creepy crawlies go,I did overhear many different groups, on different days, with different guides, that had had been on the "jungle night safari", all enthusiastically discussing, as the high point of their night walk, the giant scorpion that their particular guard had "discovered". Domesticated arachnid show biz or lota and lots of scorpions? Actually animal and insect life during an evening stroll around Kuala Lumpurs China town was much more intense and varied, if somewhat disgusting. My wife finds your blockading attempts to be perfectly logical , even if not as advanced as the situation seemed to call for. By the way I´ve heard so many people discussing the occureence of "spider" bites which they mean are like mosquito bites. I have always contended that there are no mysterious spiders that creep out and inflict multiple minor bites to sleeping or unaware persons. I´m convinced that this belief is grounded in an ignorance of animals much like the belief that Boa constrictors swallow people and such like nonsense. However I´ve heard this story on several continents and am wondering if perhaps there is a nuisance spider. There isn´t such a spider, is there?
by jc. @ 14/02/2007 9:55 am • Permalink •
5
Looks a lot like the Huntsman Spiders we get here in Australia (see Huntsman Spiders). Their legs are jointed sideways to allow them to stay very flat. The suckers move VERY fast. They get to be around 15cm across, and while they'll give you a nasty bite, like most animals, need to be provoked to do so.
We had lots of them in the house I grew up in. A side effect of their moving so fast is that when they were on the ceiling (or high up), if you spooked them they seemed to jump at you (inevitably ending up in your hair). In factual act they probably just lost traction and gravity and momentum took over.
They also have a very nasty habit of hiding under the visor in your car. More than one accident has been caused by having them jump out when you put the visor down to cut out the morning or afternoon sun.
by Steve @ 14/02/2007 12:43 pm • Permalink •
6
I love the phrase, "spider exclusion zone."
:-D
I don't mind spiders as long as they don't invade my living space or try to surprise me (like being Suddenly There when I turn my head).
I've gotten used to big spiders at the cottage. Here's one at our cottage last year that was pregnant. I like cottage spiders because they catch mosquitoes and black flies in their webs, which makes me happy.
I would have been freaked by that spider of yours, though. I've never seen anything like it, and it has that evil scuttly look about it that gives the impression that it wants to jump on your head and suck out your brains, doesn't it? Ick.
by Inkygirl @ 14/02/2007 2:29 pm • Permalink •
7
Michael Houghton: Ah, that's sweet. I also like the (quite large) spiders (I don't know the species, unfortunately) that tend to take shelter in our house over winter, and trundle around on the living room carpet of an evening. The unknown-ness was the problem with this one, I think.
Alan: I used to enjoy watching tiny jumping spiders in Italy when I worked there.
Ian: True - I don't think it's a coincidence that arachnophobia is one of the most common phobias. Rain forests (and indeed the more open habitat of the Pantanal) certainly has a lot of animals (and loads of invertebrates), but most of them hide. The danger is in stepping on them unwittingly. I'm not sure about glaciers - crevasses are pretty lethal.
jc: Great story. I don't think that there are any 'nuisance' spiders, as you put it, but as I said, I'm not an invertebrate expert by any stretch of the imagination.
by bsag @ 14/02/2007 7:35 pm • Permalink •
8
I'm impressed that your first reaction was so scientific. I recently, came across what I believed was common huntsman, as mentioned by Steve. My reaction was far less scientific, it was dead before you could say boo. And no, I don't always go around killing spiders. I'm just more use to certain varieties around the home. This was big, hairy, and way to close to me for comfort. It wasn't till I was examining the remains of its carcass that the inquiring compartments of my mind kicked in, and I thought, "...I should have taken a picture." (sigh)
by allgood2 @ 15/02/2007 2:54 pm • Permalink •
9
Oops, typo on the a href, maybe you can fix. Also, there is a cool EE extension that allow for comments to be editable. I admit to not using it yet, but my site doesn't get a lot of comments.
by allgood2 @ 15/02/2007 2:56 pm • Permalink •
10
Inkygirl: It did have a bit of a disturbing look about it, yes
Your spider is rather lovely.
allgood2: It was a struggle, I can tell you
I've fixed the link, and I'd love to know the name of the EE Extension, if you can remember it. A brief search on pMachine didn't turn up anything that looked likely.
(Trying out the edit comment plugin...)
by bsag @ 15/02/2007 7:50 pm • Permalink •
11
I was bitten by a big flat spider whilst in hawaii - had to sleep outside the airport waiting for it to open to check in (the airport, not the spider). The area swelled up to about the size of an egg, then began to ulcerate and ooze pus. It was singularly most disgusting - had to take max strength antibiotics and have the ulcer debrided and dressed daily at the medical centre. Ended up with a handful of pus come out at one stage, now left with a nice scar on my thigh. Squash them all!
by Dave @ 15/02/2007 8:51 pm • Permalink •
12
I'm not afraid of spiders, but they that nasty. And I have one big dried tarantula
by Helen @ 15/02/2007 9:25 pm • Permalink •
13
That extension for comment editing was created by Paul Burdick, who is the CTO of pMachine. The conversation thread can be picked up here, or the extension can be directly downloaded from here.
I believe its a combination extension/plugin that uses some AJAX to make things smooth. You may also want to read this thread; I believe it contain comments about installation from those who had some problems, for most it seemed that Paul's directions worked fairly well—but there are always exceptions.
Some of the extensions are hard to find. It would be nice if pMachine tracked them like they do plug-ins. I know there's the EE Wiki, but even that doesn't have a complete listing. Sometimes you just have to search various conversation threads.
by allgood2 @ 16/02/2007 9:29 am • Permalink •
14
allgood2: Yay! Thanks so much for the information. I've just installed it and it seems to work fine. Excellent!
by bsag @ 16/02/2007 1:41 pm • Permalink •
15
What's missing, of course, is a signup link for people to sign up for membership: if you're not logged in, you can't edit your comments. However, I don't want to do that until I merge the Tracks site over to the same installation, because otherwise people will have to sign up twice for both, which would be a pain.
by bsag @ 16/02/2007 7:02 pm • Permalink •
16
That thing is huge. Spiders freak me out.
by Hawaii @ 02/09/2007 2:27 am • Permalink •
Page 1 of 1 pages