Monday, April 22, 2013

S is for Spider

Perhaps we were jealous of Matty. He had a car and a private school education, even though his establishment was considered second tier in the English system. He had a job lined up in the Navy, was skilled at rugby and had a string of women in tow.


Backyard spider (David Macaulay)

We were the spotty nerds who inhabited the same living space for a while. He reluctantly allowed us to share the same air. But Matty had an Achilles Heel that showed itself one night when we were entertaining the girls from the flat upstairs in our grubby student kitchen. We heard a high pitched scream and saw a flash of rugby player torso moving fast down the corridor. Matty was quivering by the door with just a towel to cover his modesty, pointing and jabbering in the direction of the shower room.

We followed his sign and walked into the bathroom. The fan had cut out and there was a deadly quiet. Then we saw it; a large and venomous looking house spider sitting on the shower head.

We thought it best to leave if there for a couple of weeks.

British house spiders aren't harmful to humans but they can get big and certainly look unpleasant. If any creature is likely to instil fear, it's the spider. Studies suggest 10 percent of men and 50 percent of women suffer from arachnophobia. I'm sure the figure for men is higher than this.

Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. If you are really keen to avoid them you might be out of luck. There are 43,678 spider species out there.

They also vary a lot in size from the tiny Patu digua Colombia which reaches 0.39 mm, to the big tarantulas such as the Goliath Bird Eating Spider which can have body lengths up to 90 mm (3.5 in) and leg spans up to 250 mm.  They are certainly big enough for you to know about it if one is crawling on your chest at night.


Chicken tonight ? The Bird Eating spider is the biggest of the bunch

As in most species, but particularly in spiders, the lot of the male spider is not a happy one. Male spiders have a wide array of a courtship rituals which are intented to avoid being eaten by the females. They are not always successful.


Males of most species survive a few matings,before they become a quick post coital snack. Females weave silk egg-cases, each of which can contain hundreds of eggs.They may care for their young by carrying them around or by sharing food with them. A few species of spider hang out in large communal webs which can house as many as 50,000 of them but the communal gig is not the accepted pattern.

Spiders have been around for 400 million years and are among the most successful carnivores in the history of the planet. Spiders are a good reason for not being reincarnated as a fly; that and having to eat poop.

Despite their fearsome reputation spiders kill far fewer humans than snakes and scorpions. Although tarantulas look creepy, their bite is unlikely to prove fatal unless you have an allergy. The Brown Recluse is one of the most deadly spiders, although most people who claim to be bitten by them in the United States, have been attacked by something else. Alarmingly the black widow, a little black critter with a sinister red hourglass marking, poses a bigger threat to humans. Every time I see a spider in the garage I managed to convince myself it's a black widow, thus leading to a cancellation of the lawn mowing.

The Sydney Funnel Web Spider is more aggressive than the brown recluse and the black widow. However, since funnel-web antivenin arrived on the scene in 1980 nobody has died from a bite. Like most of the world's deadliest creatures, this spider hangs out in Australia. The Brazilian Wandering Spider is another one to watch for - if you are in Brazil at least. As its name suggests, it tends to wander.

Interestingly, the venom of the Brazilian Wandering Spider is being studied for a possible cure for erectile disfunction. As well as pain and cold sweats, men who have been bitten by this spider end up having erections. Sooo if he appears to be pleased to see you, but isn't feeling so good, it may be he has been bitten by a wandering spider, if you are anywhere near Rio...

Spiders have spawned numerous depictions in literature and film from the nursery rhyme Little Miss Muffet to J.R.R. Tolkien's hideous Shelob in The Lord of the Rings.

In Greek mythology Arachne was a weaver who wove a tapestry featuring 21 episodes of infidelity amongst the Gods of Olympus, which made Athena a trifle miffed. The goddess destroyed Arachne's tapestry and loom and cursed Arachne to live with extreme guilt. Out of sadness, Arachne soon hanged herself. Athena took pity on her and brought her back to life as a spider, making sure that the spider forever after retained Arachne's weaving abilities.

Spiderman, took the web spinning qualities of the spider to a comic book level, whereas there are numerous horror flicks of spiders or giant spiders on the rampage, such as Kingdom of the Spiders and Arachnophobia.

A recent email hoax described attacks by the South American Blush Spider in public toilets. The alleged spider's scientific name Arachnius gluteus translates as "butt spider."

Tarantulas are eaten in parts of south east Asia. They taste like chicken.


When in Cambodia and all that...


Useless Fact About the Spider

 Spiders often have eight eyes as wel as eight legs. The jumping spider has a telephoto-like series  of lenses, a four-layer retina and the ability to swivel its eyes and integrate images from different stages in the scan. However, its scanning and integrating processes are relatively slow.

What not to Say to a Spider

Bite me you eight legged freak


18 comments:

  1. *shudder* The other night I came shrieking out of the bathroom when a large spider walked across the floor. I looked at my fiance' and said, 'bet you can't guess why I screamed...' and he goes, 'kill it'. Yep, that's my 6'2", 260 lb trucker man. More afraid of them than I am and makes me dispatch them, usually w/ the vacuum cleaner if they are that big. But the ones in WA State, wolf spiders, are freaking HUGE. You wanna hear men scream like girls, head to WA.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yep it's usually the big guys who run off screaming JoJo

      Delete
  2. Ewwww - why did it have to be about spiders! Yeuk. I'm so scared of them it's ridiculous. I feel all funny now having looked at your pictures..

    And they have 8 eyes too!

    "Every time I see a spider in the garage I managed to convince myself it's a black widow, thus leading to a cancellation of the lawn mowing." - Nice one :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes I had some more creepy ones I could have posted for ya Juliette. The lawnmower thing works for me :)

      Delete
  3. I freaking love spiders, and would love a pet tarantula if only I weren't allergic to one of their common food sources, cockroaches. There was a spider who lived in the old package delivery slot in my house growing up, and I called it my pet. It was so fun watching it scurry about, weave webs, and spin and suck the blood from its prey. I forget the name, but there was this book I read as a preteen, about a girl who also loved spiders and eventually got her wish of having a pet tarantula, of course named Arachne.

    In the Jewish tradition, there's a story about spiders saving King David's life when he was hiding in a cave from King Saul. The spiders quickly wove a web over the mouth of the cave, so it would look like no one could've run in there recently. The web contained the design of the Magen David, which is where the star is said to come from.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hmm interesting point of view Carrie-Anne. That's a good story and now I recall the one of Robert the Bruce who took heart never to give up from seeing a spider in a cave.

      Delete
  4. We have a lot of wolf spiders around. They look so cool, and really, they're just neat little creatures. I can't say as I'm a fan of spiders in my bed, but generally, I'll let them go about their business in the house as long as they aren't making a huge web somewhere or multiplying where I can see them. If they get to be a bother, we simply put them outside.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. well yay for you Jean. Not soo many of us are so brave - the idea of a spider in bed is a shudderer.

      Delete
  5. I'm with Jean that I do not normally mess with them unless I have a reason to. It isn't that I'm a fan really, but they are really useful...especially when helping people get out of mowing the lawn. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ha ha Tracy - I am certainly big on that particular use :)

      Delete
  6. I couldn't read past the Matty story, I'm afraid. Spiders scare the crap out of me. Creepy crawly gah. I have nightmares about them. Not even kidding.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hmm why did I figure you might not like spider Jen, call it a hunch; oh s... meant to do rabbits - a bit late now tho

      Delete
  7. I'm not a big fan of spiders, and I have a healthy respect for them. I leave them alone as much as possible.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I don't mind spiders as long as they are touching me. Then I freak out a bit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yees Patricia - the old spider touchy feely thing can focus the brain.

      Delete
  9. Uurgh I hate spiders! I hate all spiders, I certainly don't miss the house spiders back in the UK, we once had one in the house and two grown men wouldn't get rid of it, they were as scared as me! I find throwing cushions helps.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. lol Rowena - I think the house spiders in Britain are a lot bigger and scarier than the ones here..

      Delete

On Blog PTSD

Now then. What the heck. It seems I had forgotten about my blog completely rather than just neglecting it this time. To return after so long...