Spider (warning contains pictures of a spider)

[spideyGirl]

that's has blown my illusion of all those exciting Sundays as a kid

[AuntyVague]

^ Same here. But some of the object owners are darn good actors then as they do manage to look genuinely surprised...or genuinely miffed!

[The Mad Collector]

The owners are genuinely hearing the info for the first time, it's the experts who get the prep time, often under the guise of 'interesting object you have brought, we just need to get the cameras and sound set up as you may be on the show, can we take you to one side whilst that is done'

[Tonyblack]

I went to the Desert Museum here in Tucson yesterday and will upload my pictures later. One of the things I saw was a female tarantula (see below). They get a good deal bigger than this one, but you don't see the females so often. I've seen male taratulas when I've been out on my walks and they are black and smaller. The males come out en masse to mate and then die. We have something here called a tarantula wasp that lays its eggs in dying male taratulas and they are incubated there.

If you don't want to see the spider, don't click on the Spoiler tab.

Spoiler: show

[Penfold]

That line of, "The males come out en masse to mate" (Particularly the 'en masse' bit) has just put me off visiting your part of the world!

[Toothy]

[ShadowNinjaCat]

It's cute. Did you get to hold it or is that someone else's hand?

[Tonyblack]

It's cute. Did you get to hold it or is that someone else's hand?

It's someone else's hand. They have a defense mechanism where they shoot the barbed hairs out of their back legs at predators. The person doing the demo said that she has to constantly wash and sterilise her hands after handling the spider. I would have loved to hold her though (the spider, not the woman).

[ShadowNinjaCat]

They shoot their hairs?,interesting. Is that all tarantulas,just that type or just the females? 'cause I met a guy who had one.He let me hold it and he never said anything about that. It was a male though.
He did tell me about another tarantula he had and some other guy asked to hold it.The tarantula got a fright and run up the mans arm.So in turn he got a fright,grabbed the spider and threw it.It didn't survive.

[Tonyblack]

From Wiki ;

New-world tarantulas (those found in North and South America) are equipped with urticating hairs on their abdomen, and will almost always throw these barbed hairs as a first line of defense. These hairs will irritate sensitive areas of the body and especially seem to target curious animals who may sniff these hairs into the mucous membranes of the nose. Some species have more effective urticating hairs than others. The Goliath Birdeater is one species known for its particularly irritating urticating hairs. Urticating hairs can penetrate the cornea so eye protection should be worn when handling such tarantulas.

[raptornx01]

Yet they are still the most common pet spider. and as i understand do make decent pets.

[Catch-up]

We had a big, fat, black jumping spider in the house last week. I tried to get a picture of it, but they came out blurry.

Funny that.

Because its HARD to hold the camera still while you are screaming and running awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

I was trying to zoom in from VERY far away. The camera just couldn't figure out what to focus on. Not only did Thing 1 hold a big jumping spider she found in her grandma's backyard yesterday, she also found the biggest click beetle I've ever seen and carried that around for awhile.

[Catch-up]

Yet they are still the most common pet spider. and as i understand do make decent pets.

Compared to what?

[chris.ph]

leperous vampire rabies riddled bats

[chris.ph]

i was in a tattooist in yeovil years ago and they had a red legged taruntula when he finshed my tattoo he let me hold it until it started crawling up the sleeve of my flying jacket, then i sh@t myself