xgrafcorex! Unexpected guest!

[chuk hell]

This wolf spider came into our house causing much unrest...especially with my wife...

whilst scooping into a jar I inadvertently knocked a few babies from it's abdomen sending my wife into a full-blown hysterical panic.

It took quite a while to calm her down but she's resting comfortably now.

I guess she wasn't aware that female wolf spiders carry their young on their abdomen until they are ready to hunt. This fact caused her no end of upset.

 

[LUCKYDOG]

Cool pics though -- I think that would have freaked out my whole house as well

 

[xgrafcorex]

haha nice! from the title, i thought you were coming down to florida.

how big is she? i guess your gonna let her go outside? if you caught a small bug, she might snap that up.

 

[chuk hell]

She was nice size...maybe 3" legspan.....

Yeah, I let her go outside last night. She seemed grateful to get out of the jar.

Here's another pic...

My wife had never seen one carring the babies before and she was in full-blown freak out mode. She said it was " the most horrible thing I've ever seen.."(!)

All the rain this year has lead to a proliferation of bugs which has lead to a proliferation of spiders. we have tons of jewel spiders and some really nice size garden orb weavers around the house. But the most impresive is the "banana" spider, which I think is also called an St. Andrews spider...



http://www.spiderzrule.com/argiope1.htm

that lives on our front porch. She is huge...at least a 4-5" legspan; nice and fat. I've started calling her the Guardian of the Gate. She was eating what looked like a cicada last night. Quite a meal.

I post a pic I took of her later......

 

[xgrafcorex]

the Argiope genus is a gorgeous bunch of spiders. of the ones in that link, we had the A. argentata and the one right above it..don't see the scientific name and i'm not sure what it is. they were spread out across our backyard in the grass, bushes, and trees. i love their webs with the zig zag designs.