I was cutting wood for knives and this fellow was hiding in the pile on a piece of maple branch. I nearly inadvertently squashed it, but luckily it got away in the end unharmed. I have no clue what species it is, but it is fairly big. The cephalothorax and abdomen together were about as big as my thumbnail, that’s about 15 mm. So with the legs and all it exceeded the size of a 2 € coin. Pictures are below the fold.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Gosh, it has very pretty colouring, but that is the sort of size that invokes my embarrasing involuntary scream reaction. *shivers*
A lovely large wolf spider of some type. I find their markings very fascinating, and appreciate their pest control services.
They aren’t creepy as long as they aren’t on me, which is completely unacceptable. I cannot suppress the ‘ argh, get it off!’ reaction no matter how much I appreciate spiders.
My vote is for a European Garden Spider, but I suspect there is a spider expert in the neighborhood who could do a better job of it. Anyway, I like those stripey legs. Though my local favorite is still the yellow garden spider, which gets very big and colorful, and likes to make webs on the back doors of my barn.