Mary and I thought our yard Argiope was looking lonely, so we visited a local breeding ground and snatched up a couple more. This is a new female, already adapting to life in our yard.
We also grabbed a couple of smaller Argiope, which might be males, or are simply too young to have the markings. They’re lurking somewhere in the underbrush.
Saw the huntsman dart swiftly across my living room wall this morning. It disappeared behind a curtain. Hope it’s killing something in the interim.
I’m kinda in a slow burn mildly arachnophobic horror feature. A brief mutual jump scare here and there. The rough part is not knowing what happens next. I so want to see some unwanted bug like a roach scurry across the floor and suddenly the huntsman strikes and f’n kills it dead. Is that too graphic a fantasy.
My luck I forget to check my shoe and the huntsman strikes my foot instead.
I have to admit this huntsman is so visually striking with its immense size it spikes my adrenaline. Tiny ass flatties inside or various orb weavers outside barely register.
I have some forbearance plus the coolness factor of an exotic murderous beast with a huge leg span darting around my house. But kinda stresses me out too. Breathe!
At least it’s not a widow or recluse.
That one zig-zaggy strand of web there looks pretty dramatic. Is that just the lighting making it look like cartoon lightning?
Quite bee or tiger like colouration there too.
Cool photo and spider.
I wish I had spiders.
In less dramatic news there might have been a cellar spider in the floor corner of my bathroom recently but I didn’t care because the other thing. I keep seeing rando isopods and webspinners. Not as many ants thus far. And thankfully no carpet beetles. I conducted a no prisoner war against those bastards years ago. Don’t wish to revisit that.
Not seeing roaches as much lately so maybe my friend is earning its housing.
Yeah the corner floor spider I just annoyed the shit out of taking photos is a cellar spider according to Apple and Seek. Don’t think it is very happy with me putting paper behind it for better contrast which kinda fucked with its web setup. Sorry dude!
Now I know what Sean Penn went through with paparazzi.
Forced population transfer is considered a war crime these days…
She’s a beautiful example of an orb weaver.
@Stevo
The zig-zag in the web is called a stabilimentum, it’s commonly noted as an identifying characteristic of the yellow garden spider, Argiope aurantia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_aurantia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabilimentum
I have a flowering plant on my patio that is highly favored by a species of narrow waisted mud daubers, who are a type of Ichneumonid wasp. Last week I saw a wasp fly through a hole in my porch light with a barn spider that was larger than her. Nature was very generous with parasitoid wasps in North America.
https://www.ichsofna.org/
@ ^ Tethys : Cheers for that and the links there. Thanks.