52% intelligent. 9% modest. More monkey than bear.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

But where were the Spiders...


Right - in this is my entry into the "I've seen a massive spider and survived" competiton..... this was in Northern Territories Australia in January this year, and I believe it is called a Wolf Spider. Sadly no metre ruler to give you the scale, but it could have taken my hand off (and given that this species, and indeed this particular specimen, rear up on their hind legs and look you in the eye, for a moment I thought it was going to).

Apparently this has a venom that acts as an anaesthetic, so it can eat parts of you in your sleep without you knowing. Nice.

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Somehow it's apt that this is my 100th post here. So let's hear the fanfare as I raise my bat to the pavilion....

Parp! Posted by Hello

posted by swisslet @ 20:15  

9 Comments:

  • At 9:36 pm, Blogger thomkat said…

    I reckon you win hands down with that one :)

     

  • At 12:15 am, Blogger Me said…

    Yes, makes mine look absolutely pathetic and miniscule.

     

  • At 9:19 am, Blogger thomkat said…

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

     

  • At 9:24 am, Blogger thomkat said…

    ooops - Didn't mean to remove comment - not got the hang of this commenting yet obviously. Here it is again, for what it's worth:

    It's not even as if it looks that big (although no handy metre rule to see for sure) maybe it's the way it's legs are really straight, which for some strange reason makes it look like it's ready to pounce or something. It just looks evil.

     

  • At 9:49 am, Blogger Teresa Bowman said…

    Goddamn! All this spider business is making me afraid to leave my house! Or even have the windows open when I'm in my house!

    I had a friend who spent a year in Australia. When she got back we were sitting in a pub and she was telling me about some of the spiders she'd seen there. "Some of them were THAT big," she said, pointing to a Fosters ashtray. I immediately resolved never to set foot in Australia - which, as Bill Bryson says, has more creatures that can kill you (spiders, snakes, sharks, jellyfish, crocodiles, etc) than any other country in the world.

    No wonder Australians are all bloody mad.

    (Sweeping generalisation there. Sorry.)

    Oh yes - congratulations on your 100th post! Does that mean you get an e-mail from the Queen?

     

  • At 10:05 am, Blogger swisslet said…

    Yeah - sorry about the lack of perspective on the spider. When I saw it, I thought it was big but not MASSIVE, if you know what I mean.... by far the biggest I have ever seen in the wild, but smaller than a tarantula.

    Big enough, I thought. And it was mean looking - especially when I was getting really close with the camera, and as it raised it's front legs at me, the guide decided to tell me that this species jump at people. I ran.

    And I don't want Mike getting spider envy either. My spider is currently on the other side of the world from me. His is in his classroom. No contest.

     

  • At 10:24 am, Blogger The Num Num said…

    Wow.
    Wolf Spiders are bad, we have some like that in our garden (not that big though) and they sometimes come inside. They are known to chase down their prey!

    Pics of emYuck.

     

  • At 3:13 pm, Blogger Me said…

    Sorry. I'm afraid I got spider envy before I read your comment. I've spent the last hour traipsing the undergrowth in search of elephants.

     

  • At 3:25 pm, Blogger Teresa Bowman said…

    I now have "Ziggy Stardust" stuck in my head.

    "Making love with his ego ..."

     

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