Content Warning: Spiders!

[lionking]

Wow. Comparable to some tarantulas in size.

Yeah, but unlike tarantulas, very deadly. I would happily sleep surrounded by hundreds of tarantulas rather than our normal sized funnel webs, let alone this bugger.

 

[Resume]

I can't sleep as it is, and now this.

 

[novaphile]

Favourite story:

Late a night, on a country road, in pitch dark, while I was changing a blown tyre on my car, we* could hear something coming towards us on the 'soft shoulder' of the road.

Because of where we were, I was a bit worried that it may be a lamb, separated from it's mother.

Pointing my torch in that direction, I didn't find a lamb, but did find a pair of incredibly reflective eyes a ground level...

It was a huntsman, literally bigger than my hand.

It was so big, it was turning over loose gravel as it was walking towards us, and that was what we could hear.

* Note: there were four of us there that night, and I've never been happier to have company!

 

[Delvo]

I'm neither an avoider nor a fan of spiders; I just don't care much one way or the other about them. But one experience I had with them was so unexpected that it has stuck with me for over two decades since then. I was in the middle of a quiet forest, miles from anything else but more forest, in southern Missouri. I sat down for lunch, and neither I nor anything else around me was making any noise for a while. Then I noticed several small spiders, not much bigger than the minimum size to be able to spot them and identify them as spiders at all, walking around near me, starting & stopping & going again repeatedly. And occasionally, while standing still, they'd vibrate either their jaws or their chelicerae (I don't know which), and make a rapid tapping/clicking/rattling sound for a second or two which I could actually hear! The idea of something so tiny making a sound that I'd ever be able to hear was so odd that I didn't even believe it myself until I'd watched them long enough to see & hear it several times.

 

[novaphile]

Hmm...

Very interesting.

That makes me wonder if it could have been competition for territory?

 

[arthwollipot]

Spiders in the car: Check this one spot before driving to prevent a crash

tl;dr: the sun visor.

Alis was nearly killed by a huntsman spider, but the spider never touched her.

It appeared in her car as she was driving and the shock of it caused her to swerve suddenly, rolling the vehicle and landing her in hospital.

"I'm very lucky to be alive," she says.

While there are no statistics for crashes caused by spiders specifically, being distracted is one of the leading causes of car crashes in Australia, says Allan Roark, a driving instructor in Launceston.

"It is one of the fatal five, suddenly being distracted," he says.

Mr Roark says when people get startled their fight-or-flight reflex can kick in.

"No matter which way you turn the wheel, the spider is going to travel with you. So the best thing you can do is just try and keep calm and gently put your foot on the brake.

"Try not to panic. That is a lot easier said than done, particularly if you have a fear of spiders," he says...

 

[Puppycow]

If anyone likes spiders I recently came across a Youtube channel called Dave's Little Beasties:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqVprXU16Ly1MH4If5hx6uQ

 

[arthwollipot]

Moves as smooth as silk: scientists uncover Australian ant-slayer spider’s hunting secrets

With stealth followed by speedy acrobatics, Euryopis umbilicata can successfully catch banded sugar ants twice its size


A mid-air cartwheel, the judicious use of sticky silk and a quick rappel down a tree, all in the blink of an eye: researchers have identified how the Australian ant-slayer spider captures prey twice its size.

The acrobatic behaviour of the Australian ant-slayer spider, Euryopis umbilicata, as it hunts and eats banded sugar ants has been documented by scientists for the first time.

During the day, the ant-slayer hides under the bark of Eucalyptus trees. At night, it perches on tree trunks and waits for the approach of unsuspecting ants. The tiny arachnid measures up to 6mm in size and its prey can be around two times larger.

“It has this crazy way of hurtling itself at an ant, doing this fabulous cartwheel then, like Spider-Man, attaching a piece of silk in mid-air to the ant,” said the study’s senior author, Prof Mariella Herberstein of Macquarie University.

“Then it keeps on twirling away from the ant while the ant is being captured. At that stage [the prey’s] fate is sealed.”

All the steps in the spider’s attack sequence occur within less than a second, which Herberstein described as an “unbelievable” feat.

 

[arthwollipot]

Three new spider species discovered in alpine Australia during Bush Blitz expedition

A warrior huntsman with a shield on its chest is among three mysterious spider species uncovered as part of an expedition through Australia's alpine region.

The 11-day Australian Alps Bush Blitz expedition to discover new species has also revealed a 3-millimetre jumping spider that "looks like a licorice all-sort", along with a wraparound spider that impersonates a tree branch.

Museums Victoria Research Institute arachnologist Joseph Schubert discovered the new spiders, and hoped to uncover more species before the expedition ends.

"Most people associate spiders with the outback dunny door, but spiders are hugely diverse," he said.

"From the infamous shield huntsman with war paint on his legs and a shield on his chest to frighten off predators, to the tiny jumping spiders that look like eight-eyed puppies."

Mr Schubert said spiders were also experts at camouflage.

"The wraparound spider is a ferocious nocturnal mini-hunter that impersonates a tree branch during the day to hide from predators," he said.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek lauded the finds as exciting.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Australia has an "alpine region"?

 

[Darat]

Australia has an "alpine region"?

Yep as well as tropical rainforests, temperate, equatorial zones and so on. The inside bit is a tad dry and dusty but around the edges it has immense variety.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_of_Australia#/media/File:Australia-climate-map_MJC01_1.svg

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Yep as well as tropical rainforests, temperate, equatorial zones and so on. The inside bit is a tad dry and dusty but around the edges it has immense variety.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_of_Australia#/media/File:Australia-climate-map_MJC01_1.svg

I don't see alpine on that map.

Of, relating to, or characteristic of the Alps or their inhabitants.
Of or relating to high mountains.
Living or growing on mountains above the timberline.

 

[Darat]

I don't see alpine on that map.

If you want to be pedantic then yes nowhere in the world can you have an "alpine environment" other than in the actual Alps...

However scientists and the Australian government don't use the label in such a pedantic manner, for example: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environme...ronment bushfire,New South Wales and Victoria.

Or more informally:

https://theconversation.com/ecochec...n alpine and subalpine,700-1,000m in Tasmania.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

If you want to be pedantic then yes nowhere in the world can you have an "alpine environment" other than in the actual Alps...

However scientists and the Australian government don't use the label in such a pedantic manner, for example: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environme...ronment bushfire,New South Wales and Victoria.

Or more informally:

https://theconversation.com/ecochec...n alpine and subalpine,700-1,000m in Tasmania.

I don't live near the Alps but we have lots of alpine lakes here in the Cascades. It's not being pedantic. I didn't think they had mountains that tall in Oz.

 

[Blue Mountain]

Three new spider species discovered in alpine Australia during Bush Blitz expedition

It's common knowledge that everything is Australia is deadly and out to kill you. So how many of that expedition returned alive?

 

[Ziggurat]

It's common knowledge that everything is Australia is deadly and out to kill you. So how many of that expedition returned alive?

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2018/10/29/the-devil-above

"In this war, the spiders are our allies."

 

[SteveAitch]

The spiders of England are almost boringly harmless, though they do tend to make some people scream when found in the bath, usually this sort
House spider by Steve Higgins, on Flickr

Male house-spider, usually only seen when on the prowl for females.

 

[Spektator]

Brown recluse spiders are no fun. Still have a small scar on my forearm where a small one bit me twenty years ago. Back then the wound, after necrotizing and sloughing, became the size of a quarter. Good thing there's a thread warning. Spiders.

 

[novaphile]

Brown recluse spiders are no fun. Still have a small scar on my forearm where a small one bit me twenty years ago. Back then the wound, after necrotizing and sloughing, became the size of a quarter. Good thing there's a thread warning. Spiders.

Less than fun fact.

Pretty much any spider that can pierce your skin, can give you a nectrotizing wound.

It's a side effect of the food they eat and how it is digested (apparently).

I've been bitten by huntsmen a few times, and the wounds were painful, deep, bled a lot, but didn't show any signs of infection/necrotizing. I'm very happy about the latter.

 

[IsThisTheLife]

It's common knowledge that everything is Australia is deadly and out to kill you. So how many of that expedition returned alive?

The stats might be reassuring now, but go back 60 years or more when there was no anti-venom for most of the critters in question and it was a different matter. From what I gather getting bitten by a Red Back, Eastern Brown or whatever is still quite an unpleasant experience even in the knowledge that you're not going to die.