Just in time for Halloween
October 30, 2011
This audio slideshow introduces a spider that I found in an outside crevice of my window. I believe it is a bola spider, a species of spider featured in the David Attenborough/BBC video “Life in the Undergrowth.”
These spiders position themselves on the underside of a leaf (or window frame), dangling a string of silk with a sticky ball on the end. They then attract moths with pheromones or chemical scents that attract the moth. When a moth comes close enough, the spider swings the ball in hopes of attaching the moth to the sticky ball.
In summer, our windows attract a lot of moths, perfect habitat for a bola spider.
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I love your narration, bro. Especially when the spider went “all leggy” on you.
However … if it’s all the same, I’ll leave the creepy-crawlies to YOU!!!
Last night I was nearly asleep with the TV on when I felt something tickle my neck. Thinking it was my hair, I grabbed the lock to throw it back over my shoulder. What I grabbed was round and moved. I threw it from me to the middle of the floor. My daughter grabbed the flashlight and together we looked for the offending tickler. In the middle of the floor was a big fat black and red spider, one leg trailing uselessly.
Unlike my intrepid brother, who would have encased it in glass to view later, I grabbed a nearby shoe and SQUASH! That spider will never have the guts to tickle me again!!!