Friday Photo: 24 August
August 24th, 2012 at 9:02 am by ChthoniidThis is a common native spider, and its brown, furry appearance does prompt my daughter to regard it as ‘cuddly’. It’s our native Nursery-Web spider. In this shot the arachnid has emerged from hiding to position herself by the nursery at night. So this is a nocturnal picture (late summer). These spiders are still about. They’re common in the bush areas around our house, and one was even sunning itself on the bricks by our garage this morning.
Mum
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August 24th, 2012 at 9:10 am
Awesome.
Actual size!
Vote:August 24th, 2012 at 9:59 am
That made me squeal like a girl….bad aracnaphobia!
I blame living in Singapore as a kid.
Vote:August 24th, 2012 at 10:11 am
Cool pic- I quite like spiders (It’s rodents that put the shits up me..).
Vote:August 24th, 2012 at 1:01 pm
… where are the legs … box brownie stuff … etc etc [subscript: I hate my life]
Vote:August 24th, 2012 at 1:54 pm
@Ryan Sproull
Yes- albeit we’ve got some larger spiders. Some of the vagrants or tunnelwebs are pretty hefty.
@b1gdaddynz
I tried to find a cute one- think of it more like a teddy-bear.
@Longknives
I have a fascination with arachnids also- rats, not so keen on. I will observe however that a swift blow to the back of a rat’s head with a ball-pen hammer is an efficient way to resolve rat-human coflict at night.
@thedavinicmode
always good to have your valued contributions in the absence of the KB resident critic
Vote:August 24th, 2012 at 2:28 pm
I don’t think RB comes on here anymore. Instead, his own blog is full of rants about how ‘leftist’ DPF & Kiwiblog are!
These things die after laying their eggs and then the spiderlings consume their mum’s body, don’t they? (I forget where I heard that, so it may not be accurate…)
Vote:August 24th, 2012 at 2:32 pm
RRM
Perhaps you have confused the spiders with something you read about West Auckland.
Vote:August 24th, 2012 at 2:39 pm
For Longknives, a giant centipede eviscerating a mouse.
Vote:August 24th, 2012 at 2:42 pm
I know they’re not dangerous and they do an awesome job predating nasty little grazing bugs that ruin our gardens, pantries and bookshelves. But big spiders can still fuck right off though.
I unwrapped my Triumph to give it a midwinter oil-up and run recently, and as I rolled up the cover a long-legged brown hairy spider the size of the back of my hand fell onto the back of my hand.
After I had finished jumping and waving my arms around like a madman I had no idea where the spider was.
I hope I didn’t hurt him/her, but (s)he was simply NOT invited to, or welcome on, the back of my hand.
The only spiders I really *like* are those little native jumping spiders that are green or gold coloured with a shiny black head and front legs. They’re cool. Any chance we could have a photo of one of those guys next week?
Vote:August 24th, 2012 at 2:56 pm
@RRM – 2.28pm
Something else I think.
@cha
Aah, the theory that vertebrates are somehow higher animals isn’t universally subscribed to by some large, carnivorous inveterbrates…
@RRM -2.42pm
The jumping spider you’re thinking of is Trite planiceps, I’ve got a good collection of those. They’re diurnal. Not a great challenge to find and photograph.
Most of our big spiders are nocturnal, so you have to go out at night into bush areas to find them. I don’t meet many people out there though. Odd.
Although we had a tunnelweb make it into our house yesterday afternoon and stride across the kitchen floor before being spotted.
Vote:August 24th, 2012 at 10:26 pm
Those big buggers that you find in creeks out in the bush give me the creeps. I call them Jesus spiders cause they walk on water. Think they are related to the one in your photo, look the same, not that I inspect them too closely mind you!
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