Wednesday, November 21, 2007

One Big Wolf Spider


As I leisurely urge the lawnmower across the rough hay something scurries ahead. My first impression was that I had distressed a small rodent, but upon closer inspection I find that it is one of the largest wolf spiders I’ve ever encountered. My first inclination is to grab it before it gets away, but remembered immediately that even though these spiders are not poisonous they can still bite. I hurriedly ran to the house, grabbed a peanut butter jar and luckly when I returned it was still there. I then placed it into a plastic bin that I had in order to photograph it.
As I nervously brought the lens of my Lumix as close as possible I couldn’t help but think it would at any moment pounce on my shaky hand. I know of many folk that would’ve stomped it into oblivion- just because. Little do they know that these wolf-like predators are not only harmless, but play an important role in keeping insect pests in check.
In order to get a sense of its enormity I placed my hand beneath it…..under the container of course :-)

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6 Comments:

Blogger Hugh Griffith said...

Wow Jace,

Another amazing arthropod. I've never seen one even half that size up here in Canada. Great pictures - the one with your hand is especially effective (and I'm sure to some a bit freaky).

Hugh

10:55 PM  
Blogger Jace Stansbury said...

Thanks Hugh. It would've been even cooler if I could've built up the nerve to really place it on my hand, but.....

6:38 PM  
Blogger TR Ryan said...

Great Blog!

9:25 PM  
Blogger Jace Stansbury said...

Thanks TR! Spread the word! Dude you have been to a lot of cool places! Excellent writing.

Jace

8:14 PM  
Blogger Linda Navroth said...

Hi Jace,

Your blog is terrific! The wolf spider caught my eye--I once unkowingly spent five nights sleeping with one in my sleeping bag. It bit me once and left a huge welt on my back. So they aren't totally 'harmless!'

When my mom shook out my bag at the end of the trip, out he tumbled!

Peace,
Linda

4:30 PM  
Blogger Jace Stansbury said...

Thank you m'am. I try to make to make this thing as interesting as I can. Hopefully there's more neat stuff to come!

7:46 PM  

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