Sunday, August 24, 2008

Arachnophobes, Beware!

We had a LOT of rain from Tropical Depression Fay on Sunday. Right at three inches. Which is definitely NOT what our poor driveway needed.





We also had quite a bit of wind. During a particularly windy and rainy period, Steve went outside for something or other and called Morgan and me to "come look, quick!"





Near our door, swaying precariously in the wind, was an enormous banana spider, spinning her web.





Okay, in researching this spider I found that what we call a banana spider is scientifically known as an Argiope aurantia. There are quite a few other spiders commonly known as banana spiders, some poisonous. My little lady is quite harmless.



Supposedly, her mate will be nearby. He should be significantly smaller with no markings. I'll have to look for him tomorrow.



Our lovely spider's zigzag in the center of her web (the stabilimenta, which, oddly enough, does NOT add stability to the web) is not nearly as neat as generally seen. I think that's because she was doing her spinning during a wind storm. I believe we can overlook her messy web this one time.

4 comments:

berrypatch said...

EEEWWWW!!!! I would have run screaming the other way - nasty! LOL

Teeny said...

Teeny loves playing with those things...
See:
http://teenysfunshots.blogspot.com/2007/08/itsy-bitsy-spider-climbed-up.html

Cynthia said...

EWWWWW! You wouldn't catch me near a spider that looked like that... or any spider now that I think of it.

Shego67 + Sam said...

a what?