Canon PowerShot G9
ƒ/2.8
7.4 mm
1/40
80
Anyone know the species?
It’s the largest spider I have ever seen in the wild.
The underbody looks like a totem pole of faces in full size.
32 responses to “Giant Radioactive Spider”
-
Looks sort of like the Argiope trifasciata. Maybe? Half way down this page…
nature.berkeley.edu/~stevelew/cbcstuff/common_spiders/big…and
http://www.cirrusimage.com/spider_argiope_trifasciata.htm -
Better right outside your door than mine! Don’t really mind most spiders, but one this size is a bit intimidating! Thanks for the ‘up close & personal’ view…interesting!
-
Very handsome!!
I always wonder that it’s a pity that animals in the wild cannot see and appreciate themselves, their awesome looks…
-
Well, the one kbaird posted is a St Andrews Cross spider, which are pretty common in & around Sydney (Australia) where I live. I was going to suggest that yours might be a St Andrews Cross when I saw the legs paired like that but when I saw the top of it I wasn’t so sure.
Did it sit in the middle of it’s web with opaque zigzags in it’s web extending from it’s pairs of legs? If you blow on it or poke it does it bounce back & forth? St Andrews Cross spiders do that – if you poke their backs they do an amazingly quick move & suddenly appear on the other side of their web as if by magic (they don’t attack, they try to evade). If you poke them again eventually they start bouncing back & forth (like violent vibranting). It’s a defence mechanism to make it hard for the bird (that is obviously poking them) to focus clearly on them, therefore making it harder for said bird to eat them.
If it is a St Andrews Cross then it’s fairly harmless. Big, but not aggresive and not dangerous.
—
Seen on your photo stream. (?) -
BTW, with St Andrews Cross spiders, as with most spider species I believe, the female is about 10 times bigger than the male (which are often misidentified as babies), and quite often you’ll find a few males either in the same web as the female or with their own webs very close to the female.
-
Sage – Yes on the vibration! It was a wild oscillation when my son got near. There were no zig zag lines on the web when I took the shot, but she just caught a fly today and there’s one…. I wonder if it that could be the mark of a meal.
Alieness: just got back from seeing the play Treasure Island. Had to celebrate today in full style. And I have a full Pirate costume for Halloween this year. Yarrr! P-)
-
this one en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_trifasciata , but the colors from your top side are different in the abdomen area.
-
How big was this one?
I’d click on the full size, but I’m scared of spiders and this is as much as I can stand…
-
I didn’t know about the Tomato history… just knew the commonplace that they are a fruit and not a vegetable…
( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato#Fruit_or_vegetable.3F )Will google about that!!
-
Hehe…. 1 thread, 3 different species of orbweavers, hehe…. Orbweavers are pretty and pretty harmless too. 🙂
-
Hello
This photo should be used in class, at school !
Please add your photo to flickr.com/groups/475803@N21/ first
and tag this image with these words :
araignée arachnida nature animal spider macroI invite you to insert this photo in these groups :
http://www.flickr.com/groups/animals/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/77717782@N00/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/beautiful_nature/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/animals-edu/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/naturegroup/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/nature-edu/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/54989341@N00/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/77717782@N00/
flickr.com/groups/wikimedia_commons/ -
-
Extraordinary Capture! You deserve another Buzz and Bug Award as seen in our pool
Please Tag Your Photo with BuzzNBugz
-
nice one
Extraordinary Capture! You deserve another Buzz and Bug Award as seen in our poolPlease Tag Your Photo with BuzzNBugz
-
Great shot
Extraordinary Capture! You deserve another Buzz and Bug Award as seen in our poolPlease Tag Your Photo with BuzzNBugz
Leave a Reply to The Sage of Shadowdale Cancel reply