UKC

I used to be really unnerved by spiders, but since starting to get in to macro (close up) photography, Im finding arachnids and all other insects really interesting and am no longer bothered by them (perhaps not like that episode of red dwarf Demons and Angels where Lister has to eat a tarantula)

Anyway its very slow at work this afternoon and my highlight so far is finding a Zebra spider walking along my monitor. Ive never seen one of these before although they are a common jumping spider, typical Ive not got my camera with me though.

In reply to ow arm:

Although a keen spare time entomologist , I've always been freaked out by most of the spiders I find in my house and garden - something about long thin legs and scuttling movement. But the small jumping spiders , wolf spiders and the big furry tarantulas are awesome creatures which I enjoy observing .
Moths are my favorite group of insects - the sheer diversity of species is spectacular . Also the fact that you only have to rig up an ultraviolet lamp and they all come to you rather than you spending hours looking for them is a bonus ,

In reply to ow arm:
Have you seen this?
youtube.com/watch?v=MVDolRfgseY&

Amazing little beasties.

In reply to ow arm:

yeah saw them on tv theyre beautiful

In reply to ow arm:

Little tale;

We hired a car for the last day of our trip to Adelaide, a nice little “Getz”. Our plan was to go hiking and touring in the hills around the area and to visit some of the scenic towns there. We got off to a great start on Mt Lofty, as they had a cafe there which did us tea, toast and scrambled eggs to fill us up and fuel us up for the day. The views down over the city were magnificent.We knocked off a short trail there just to warm up. This was a bit pointless as it went nowhere and wasn’t that scenic, but it did get us warmed up. In fact as the day was going to hit 39 degrees (102 f) warming up should have been the last thing on our mind.

So we drove off from there looking for another venue. We were driving along a windy hill road, very scenic, when the wife screamed loudly. Now fortunately, I’m quite used to this, though this was a particularly loud scream. Her screams are normally followed by; “Did you not see/just hit/run over that old person/truck/gorge/policeman?!?!”

So I turned to look at what had caused her to scream so, and screamed myself! This little beauty had run up the passenger side window. Wonderfully sunlit from behind, glowing in effect.

http://www.fatbeetle.com/galleries/adelaide/spider%202_jpg_orig.html

We came very close to having to pay to get the car seats dry cleaned. It was a fully grown huntsman, about 6 inches in span. (For an idea of scale, those red heater stripes on the car rear window are about 1 1/2 inches apart.) My heart didn’t slow down to under 120 bpm until I realised it was on the outside of the car. Such a beauty when you are safe from them.