A Little Arachnaphobia for ya [big pics]

Zeeks · Post by **Zeeks** » Sat Aug 14, 2004 9:47 pm

I happened to be weeding out my flower beds, and came accross this particularly colorful spider; come to find out, it is a rather common garden spider, species Argiope aurantia , or in layman's terms, the Argiope Spider. Well, I took some digital pics, and they came out rather good, so I figured it might be nice to share with the folks at the TFA. Hope you enjoy.

Edit: Added small warning for pic size.

-Sadie

ThePeacemkr2 · Post by **ThePeacemkr2** » Sat Aug 14, 2004 10:21 pm

That spider would freak me out...

Really nice pictures, though.

Arcee · Post by **Arcee** » Sat Aug 14, 2004 10:39 pm

Beautiful spider!

RID Scourge · Post by **RID Scourge** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 2:09 am

Nice. Have you ever considered being one of those nature photographers, who takes pictures of things for science books? I bet you could get those published.

Chromia · Post by **Chromia** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 2:17 am

AAArrgggghh!!!

I hate spiders!!!!

Gesani · Post by **Gesani** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 2:45 am

hmm nice spidy....

they are common here in the south.. Most of the old-timers call then qipper spiders due to the zipper pattern that they weave into thier webs..

Hawkeye · Post by **Hawkeye** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 3:48 am

cool pic....see there is the upsid to maintaining such a large estate:D

KillTheKids · Post by **KillTheKids** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 6:14 am

Mmmmmm

homerbot · Post by **homerbot** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 2:22 pm

oh if only my aunt could have seen that up close (she would have freaked)
and clay, how do you manage to make me laugh at almost every single post of yours?

Skystream · Post by **Skystream** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 4:26 pm

That is one weird-looking spider. O_o Over here in the UK we just get boring little drab-brown ones...

onearmedrich · Post by **onearmedrich** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 4:29 pm

I've never seen one of those in my garden! How big was it?

DrSpengler · Post by **DrSpengler** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 5:49 pm

The spiders around here don't get very big.

Thankfully.

Post by **Sades** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 8:15 pm

That's a cool spider.

Mostly I see the roving kind... I'm not quite sure how they eat, IIRC I think they actually chase their prey down. They don't build hunting webs.

The type that do build webs, I usually only notice them if I stumble through one of the webs.

Or if they're on the side of a building or something.

Zeeks · Post by **Zeeks** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 9:28 pm

Originally posted by Claypool
isn't this the kinda posts mods/admins are cracking down on? somone better delete his post because it's spam and taking up precious bandwith.

Clay, I realize that you have some kind of debate going on with the mods right now, but I would appreciate it if you kept your arguements out of this thread. It's really not the place for it.
Danke.

Post by **Sades** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 10:40 pm

Originally posted by Kremzeek75
Clay, I realize that you have some kind of debate going on with the mods right now, but I would appreciate it if you kept your arguements out of this thread. It's really not the place for it.
Danke.

I agree; post removed due to complaint. Clay, take your concerns to the staff please. The sticky thread above is there for a reason, too...

Originally posted by onearmedrich
I've never seen one of those in my garden! How big was it?

Was it bigger than a breadbox?

DrEvil · Post by **DrEvil** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 10:42 pm

Ahh spider spider. I dreamt about a spider once... big and brown it was yes. It grew in size but that is another story.
Ah the common bond me and a Spider has.... strange really although I doubt you'd want to hear it.

However, its a nice spider and its nice photograph of it. It looks like it has a second pair of eyesGood job Kremz.

Post by **Denyer** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 10:57 pm

Originally posted by KillTheKids
Mmmmmm

Probably not enough meat on a spider to make them very tasty. (C'mon, be a bit more specific...)

Does anyone see a certain similarity between this kind of spiderback and the Venom / symbiote costume designs in Spider-Man comics?

Lord Decepticon · Post by **Lord Decepticon** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 11:18 pm

THAT THING IS HUGE!

KillTheKids · Post by **KillTheKids** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 11:48 pm

Originally posted by Denyer
Probably not enough meat on a spider to make them very tasty. (C'mon, be a bit more specific...)

I'm telling you, spiders could be an awesome novelty/delicacy. Find a bunch of rare ones, (in moderation you hippies) extract the venom, strip the hair and crap, pluck the legs and deep fry them with some sort of sauce, let the eyes form a kind of jelly, set the meat in garlic and oils, section each part off in a tin. It's take about 20 for one tin, and retail for about $30. Or spider pate! The possibilities are endless.

"The goliath has many predators, mostly medium sized rainforest mammals who dig the spiders out of their burrows. Humans in the rainforest regions are also a predator to these spiders, they find the goliath to be a delicacy roasted on the fire. "

Goliath Bird Eating Spider
Serving size, 1 spider (avg. 2 oz)
Calories 110 Calories from Fat 40
Total Fat 1g
Cholesterol 10mg
Total Carbohydrate 0g
Dietary Fiber less than 1g
Sugars 1g

There ya go Denny.

Plasmodium · Post by **Plasmodium** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 11:57 pm

Originally posted by DrSpengler
The spiders around here don't get very big.

Thankfully.

Same here, though I guess its like that in most of Canada, esp the prairies. The biggest Ive seen here is the common garden spider, the ones with the huge blocky abdomens.