This one is for Michelle, the pastoral assistant at the CSC...
I stopped by the Center on my way home from work tonight. When walking up the path, I had one of those annoying encounters with an invisible spider web. After the obligatory waving about like a madman, I decided the web was sufficiently cleared and continued on my way. About two hours later, I was sitting here in my apartment, typing away at my computer, when I noticed some motion out of the corner of my eye. Just beside my right hand, the largest arachnid I have ever seen within a domestic setting was skittering over my mouse. Needless to say, I leapt away from my desk shrieking like a school girl and fetched my handy Sharper Image Bub Vacuum (a gift from Isabel). The littler bugger put up quite a bit of resistance, but I finally managed to get it locked away in the observation compartment...where it will stay until I have assessed whether or not I have any wounds from the beastly thing (it would make my third assault from an invertebrate that required medical attention). Anyway, I was so impressed by the monster that I wanted to share some pictures. You will note that in one shot, there is second smaller spider in the observation compartment. He is a prisoner from a previous encounter that I had not managed to free. Sadly, he is no more. Even more sadly, the video I attempted to capture of the two spiders fighting was too blurry to reproduce.
You should put a coin in there or something, for scale. I mean, sure, that thing looks big...but how can you really tell?
Posted by: Mike | August 17, 2007 at 12:14 AM
The only problem with that plan is that it means opening the observation compartment... and this is one fast bug.
Maybe I'll try to get a picture of a ruler next to the plastic.
He isn't nearly as large as some of the spiders I've seen on identification websites. Some people were claiming to nab five inch behemoths in their basements. This guy isn't nearly that big...maybe somewhere between an inch and a half to two-inches stretched out.
I'd be curious to see what would happen if I stuck a big house millipede in there, but I wouldn't want to get arrested for animal baiting.
Posted by: PeterTerp | August 17, 2007 at 10:53 AM
AHHHH! I hate spiders. I especially hate getting caught in spiderwebs like that. I make myself look crazy often enough, thank you. There must be something about that path up to the CSC; I seem to hit most of them there, right by the fountain with Our Lady.
Posted by: Lindsay | August 18, 2007 at 09:53 PM