#large spiders

Hangin’ in the Garden The other afternoon I went outside to do some chores, and didn’t get very far because I stumbled on this gorgeous girl in her web hanging between two blackjack plants. As I stated earlier this week, the blackjack is attracting all sorts of pollinators and insects right now, so she had her web is a great place. In case you don’t recognize her, she’s a yellow garden spider…

Watch This Amazing Spider Get All Cleaned Up introduces a video of a white banded fishing spider cleaning itself after getting wet.

This morning I found this beautiful, young white banded fishing spider (Dolomedes albineus) in the sink where I clean my surgical instruments. Of course, it couldn’t stay there (it wouldn’t have liked either the soap or the running water), so I rescued it and took it outside. When it was safely in our hedges I expected it to quickly disappear, but instead it sat there and cleaned itself for…

A spider the size of a dog (say, a golden retriever)

A pile of normal spiders equalling the mass of a dog (again, let's say a golden retriever)

(Assuming that either encounter is largely indifferent to you in much the same way as a normal spider would be in the wild.)

That means only a few more years with Blondie, but her pedipalps will look fucking cool!

You can't see them in this pic but her palps are intense.