Sunday, August 02, 2015

Spider! But First, "Full-Service Shop?"

     Warning: if you can't stand spiders, you need to skip this one.  Right now.  Do not scroll down; do not pass Go, and do not collect fifty thousand scary-looking spiderlings who will scamper through your dreams each night, trailing gossamer strings of web, barking quietly and biting you if you so much as twitch.

     First, I digress: this building has been slowly growing just north of Kessler Boulevard and College Avenue* and recently sprouted a sign:
They'll also walk dogs.  And change your oil.  Maybe.
     A closer check of other signage along the fence reveals the bank-with-lunch is only the first floor and they're looking for a tenant for the second floor.  I was thinking maybe a day spa/machine shop combo.

      That was for the anti-spiderers, for the people whose reaction is the exact mirror of the poor hairy wolf-spider whose funnel-shaped web I carelessly damaged one side of with a weed-eater last week -- the poor thing didn't know whether to sound Battle Stations, General Quarters or Collision Alarm, and raced crazily from one side of her web to the other a few times, finally settling at the neck of the funnel and bouncing indignantly as I directed the weed-whacker elsewhere.  I said, "Sorry, lady, I thought you'd moved out," but it didn't help.  She kept bouncing.

     Nope, don't look farther if you can't cope with spiders.
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     Okay, are they gone?  Here's a new creature who has set up shop near the patio, not a tiny little airship spider seining gnats with fairy webs that vanish in strong light, nor a big old wolf spider hoping for a small mouse but a real builder, with a web that spans six feet from anchor to anchor.  Here's one of my better attempts to show the working part, with both spider and lunch in evidence:
Spider at left, just above center, lunch (and possibly decoy) to the right and lower.
     The spider itself -- probably herself, as those male spiders that don't get eaten after the wedding tend to be travelling fellows and who could blame them? -- the spider herself could probably sit comfortably on my little fingernail were it not for the way I would be yelling, "Get it off me!" and shaking my hand.  But what a shape!
Maybe I saw this on the Late Movie and not in a nature book.
     I've seen a picture of a spider like this (though I can't remember where) and it may be a cousin of the little spiders that have encamped in the back yard.  It's patterned, too, and tries to look more like debris than a spider when it's just waiting for prey.

     Update: Probably a Spined Micrathena Spider. Some of these photos are very close.
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* By their titles, you are to be given to understand that these are Streets To Be Reckoned With, not to mention Navigated By, and Thoroughfares Of Standing indeed.  I believe Avenues are outranked by Boulevards, which in turn are subordinate to Parkways -- and Parkways answer only to the Almighty.  Or the Street Department, which is almost the same thing when it comes to roads. 

8 comments:

Comrade Misfit said...

Did she rebuild her web?

Roberta X said...

The wolf spider? Probably -- the web was at least 80% intact after I hit the edge of it and stopped. They do move fairly often and never clean up their old spot.

As for this spider, I need to check up. It appears that part of her technique is to pretend to be another meal stashed in the web, and to leave some tattered spots. Sneaky!

Old NFO said...

Interesting and there is not much I hate more than spiders... sigh

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Ignoring spiders, with which I have a long ongoing war here at Curmudgeon Flats --

Remember when banks were large, imposing, stone buildings that looked like they had been there forever and would remain ditto? And exuded an air of confidence and fiduciary trust? Like this one?

Nobody would dare put a micro café in there. A cigar and bourbon bar, perhaps, but never a micro café.

Roberta X said...

I remember, Fuzzy. It wasn't that long ago... They didn't used to have to get bailed out by the Feds, either -- that was what Savings and Loans were for.

Irishdoh said...

Wait, I'd go to a bank with a Cigar and Bourbon Bar attached...

Blackwing1 said...

Your schedule seems to have you out-and-about at some early hours. If you can find a morning when you don't have to go Skunk-working, and there's been a pretty good dew-fall overnight, it's a lot of fun to try to take a picture of a good web in early-morning sun, covered with dewdrops. Even those ultra-faint web lines become outlined.

I've never seen a spiky-looking arachnid like that one before. Very interesting, thanks for the picture and the links.

Unknown said...

In the seventies there was a 'fish sandwich - karate' store on College (30th?). Long gone, I never stopped by.