Pic of my new house guest

[Marshmallowman]

got suprised tonight she was just sitting there in front of my patio door....






bit tricky getting closeups as she appears to be a bit nervous, and so was I.....

edit to add 1 and resize(reload should get them back to 800x533

[ZokesPro]

Nice pics!!!

[GT98]

Might want to resize the photos....can barely see them on my 17in montior at 1200x960

What type of spider anyway?

[Tjalfe]

awww... she is sooo cute.. are you going to adopt?

[Marshmallowman]

I think she is an Orb weaver, looking at her at night you just don't see how red she is.

Tried some from underneath, but for some reason it comes out to bright an oversaturated...I will try a torch and no flash tommorrow night.

As spiders go they are quite docile(if quite large), I'll try for a shot of her web as well tommorrow morning.

[Sethos]

ewwww

can we say Arachnophobia

~Sethos

[Brian Ellis]

She is going to weave a funnel shaped web covering your patio door and the next time you go out, you'll be sucked into the funnel and wham! you'll be on the dinner menu for a week or two

I've heard of your Oz arachnids and wouldn't touch them with my 10 foot bargepole. Ouch!

[Jon P. Inghram]

Kinda hard to tell from the pictures... roughly how big is it? Pretty spider though!

[Marshmallowman]

a couple more from the other side







They are not quite clear...but you try keeping your hand still, and that is after a 1/3 a bottle of vodka

The web is about 4 ft across and goes the full hight of the Patio, with a bit of luck she will move a bit further out into the garden...otherwise I might accidentaly become her dinner one night..

They really are nice spiders, they don't attack but I must say I am not sure who was more nervous

Really wish I was an early riser the webs look excellent in early morning llight

Ill leave her alone for now, otherwise she might steal my camera

[Marshmallowman]

Shes about 2 inches long, if she finds a better spot to catch more insects she could probably get near to double that in year or so..

These are one of the smaller orb weavers, the golden one will easily double that size..but you are very unlikely to find them in suburbia. Of course the orb weaver is a member of the same group as the birdcatching spider...I will leave the size and habits to your imagination for that one

[ZokesPro]

How big is that spider?

[Marshmallowman]

Here is a "dady long legs" ho appears to be mum not a dad...sadly she had to go, got tired of clearing cobeabs in the kitchen...about the same lenght as the one above but obvious a much slimmer build(2 inches in length)




of course if you want to get them nice'n'big you have to feed them the right food

here is a box of high protein meal I was going to feed to her...

[The PIT]

lol

[ZokesPro]

Tasty!

[az]

Wow, the 2nd shot of your second set has absolutely beautiful colors

AZ