FishProfiles.com Message Forums

At least our spiders arent all legs and fur...

US spiders are practically small mammals!

Ours are smallish and deadly And much more fun

Callatya attached this image:


For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Ooh, Dolomedes fishing spiders ... we have our own species in the UK, D. fimbriatus.

Mind you, if you want a nice big one, try this fellow from Surinam ... Theraphosa leblondi

Weight: 160 grams.
Leg Span : Usually around 25 cm, but exceptional specimens (including one in captivity here in the UK) have attained 30 cm leg spans.
Fang size: 2 cm.

I have a press cutting somewhere that shows how big this beast is ... you put the press cutting on your lap, then imagine that creature sitting there ... you have to like spiders a lot to do that


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

***puts limb in whitetail nest to test theory***

somehow i kinda like the fact that the death rate of those things is so high.

Though, there is research showing that the hubub about their bite is all a big misunderstanding and not caused by the venom of the spiders at all.


For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Bloody hell white-tail spiderlings are hard to raise compared to other Australian spiders IME..only got 7 to adult hood out of around 200. They've also been the hardest to breed out of all the spiders I've kept.

I'll mail you the next one I see Robby.

---

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West

Fishingspider...nice looking..
Maybe i will get one of those,and take him with me for fishing,He might catch more fish than i do...

---

I know human beings and fish can co-exist peacefully.

this is the most exciting spider we have around here
http://www.ottertooth.com/Temagami/Nature/fishingspider.htm
they get to about 3" or so, kind of freaky when you are sitting on a dock and one pops out to say hi!

---

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West

I had a whitetail spider crawl across the keyboard the other night. I tried to flick him on the floor with some paper but he dissapeared. Found him 5 minutes later crawling across the monitor. Fixed him with a gallon of Mortein. For our U.S. friends, Whitetails are a smallish spider with the ability to make your flesh rot after a bite. My aunty lost most of her forearm courtesy of one of these little critters. Don't you just love Australia!

Last edited by james747 at 22-Apr-2005 04:49

Hi,

Not all our spiders are small, but yes that one is not a nice spider (redback) can make you quite ill. Nice pic Calla

Im not worried about spiders we sell selentipus spiders at work and they are one big so and so. I think the common name is the arid bird eating spider and they grow the size of a dinner plate.

Trace

i am typing on the computer and i turn my head and there is a spider going down (i guess on a web) from the cieling to the floor. about 2 feet away. he was going back up and then he dissappeared. i was looking at the ceiling and i didn't see the black spider. that are the chance he is crawlingon my couch (which was the last evelation that i saw him at). or is he on the ceiling.

Once when I was a teenager, I came out to my car and found a tarantula sitting on the dash. EEEK!! I drove home very carefully and left the door open when I got there. Never saw him again. I guess I should have been more prepared, living in the Southwest!

"Constant vigilance!"
Mad-Eye Moody

I get along fantastically with spiders...when they stay in Australia

Unfortunately, some of them continue to migrate to the States, and I don't get along so well with those ones...

But I do not kill them. Instead, I leave. Eventually, I enter the area where they were, and they are no longer there. That is a sign that they caught a flight to Australia and I can go about my Texas life again...

PM/email/msg me if you have any questions/comments regarding me or my knowledge or if you want me to read a thread.

http://adultswim.vandaliersheart.com/ohno.swf

OH NOS!! IT R TEH CLOCKSPIDAR.

I just noticed I have 1337 posts. GFG.

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 21-Apr-2005 13:40

I can't stand the little SOBs

I couldn't imagine living in Australia, the home of the most poisonous creepy crawly slithering everything... on the planet.

---

Back in the saddle!

Hee hee. I've already posted enough creepy spider links in this forum for everyone to know what I think. Spiders are fascinating creatures, even if critters like the Huntsmen can be unnerving if they suddenly appear from nowhere in your lap (as sometimes happens to Australian motorists: my brother told me that they are a known cause of road traffic accidents in places like Brisbane, because they have a habit of hiding in the drop-down sun shields at the top of the windscreen, then come tumbling into your lap when you lower them to shade your eyes).

Mind you, if you want truly awesome spiders, the tiny Jumping Spiders from the Family Salticidae are amazing, especially some of the tropical ones. They're coloured like little jewels in all manner of brilliant iridescent hues, and have big headlamp like eyes at the front and droll little faces. Plus, with a leg spread not exceeding 10mm, they won't scare anyone even when depicted magnified!

This page tells you more about them, and includes video footage of wacky courtship dances that the males perform complete with semaphore type signlling.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I agree with Heidi. Just browsing through her post and coming across the words daddy long legs makes my hairs stand on end.

Spiders are lovely creatures. We capture them and put them outside if they bother us but mostly we live and let live. It may be in your couch so be careful not to squish the little darling.

Mike

I don't know where the dang thing is, so here is my solution Leave the house now!!! I had a student bring a daddy long legs up to me to show me this afternoon, and I almost killed myself, and several students in the process of trying to get away, screaming the whole time

The only good spider is a dead one as my mother would say

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

ceiling

(btw, this woulda been better as a poll)

Daka<<<<