It was shy, and wanted to return to shade, but held still for a bit. Younger daughter pointed out the eyes here. There seemed to be a great sufficiency. I'm glad my wife only has two!
Here it is bunched up before going over the fence into a big lot maintained as a wild, aquifer-recharge zone. There are lots of shady spots over there, too.
With a young puppy around, maybe this backyard was not a good long-term living place. The pup leaves nothing alone! ;-] Today my reading glasses were found in the backyard, slightly mangled. That is, out of the room, down the hall, down the stairs, out through the puppy door, then abandoned (with slobber on them). Glad I got them back. Also glad it wasn't anything else.
Jim, I'm sure the puppy is cute and cuddly (despite having snatched your reading glasses) Not so the young scorpion!
ReplyDeleteWrong spider, Jim. I believe you spotted a young tarrantula. Scorpions have long tails, no "fur" and resemble an evil lobster.
ReplyDeleteGood Morning Jim,
ReplyDeleteHere is some info on the new little friend you found. Definatly a cute little girl.
The New Tarantulas
The name 'tarantula' nowadays refers to the media image of large hairy spiders, most of these are only distantly related to the real tarantula, they belong to a different family of spiders, this family is know as Theraphosids or Mygalomorphs. Spiders are members of the Arachnid family, they are not Insects!
These Theraphosids cover all the so called tarantulas, Baboon, and bird eating spiders, as they are also wrongly called.
There are over 35,000 recognized species of spiders in the world, of these so far 830 have been described as Tarantulas, and new species are still being found.
Tarantulas are shy creatures, if they are disturbed they will usually run away, either to their burrow or to the nearest cover. If an animal tries to attack a tarantula, it will defend itself in one of two ways: All American (New World) species will first kick urticating (irritating) hairs out of its abdomen at its attacker, this will usually drive the attacker off. The tarantula may possibly bite its attacker if the first step fails.
The Asian (Old World) species does not use urticating hairs, this type of tarantula tends to run away and only bite only if provoked.
There have been no substantiated deaths attributed to tarantula bites. Tarantulas are in fact very clean creatures, they are not known to carry any communicable diseases that can be picked up by humans or indeed any animal.
There are many different species of tarantulas, living in many parts of the world. Most female tarantulas rarely travel more than 9 inches from their burrows throughout their whole life. They usually sit close to the opening after dark, waiting for any prey that comes close to their burrow, and then pouncing on them and injecting venom to paralyse their prey. Male tarantulas during the breeding season are frequently seen, as they try and find a suitable, and approachable mate. The males may travel many miles in their search to perpetuate the species.
My English was poorly expressed. The scorpion ran away before I could take a picture. I was left with the tarantula (I knew what it was).
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