Nursery web spider, an Early Morning Visitor.

To arrive early morning at ones study, before the sun has even risen, and find this visitor sitting quietly on your chair, was the surprised honour of my Son-in-law. His luck on finding it on top of the chair, and not receiving a quiet introduction via a creepy feeling ascending his leg from below the chair level was a welcome one. His attempt to catch it (yes we are a nature loving family) was unsuccessful, which required a search and rescue on his return from work that evening. Grand Children, Grand Parents and Son-in-law, he on his back, was the lucky one to discover the hiding place of the visitor. (Who am I kidding, rather him than me). I ran for my camera to record the emergence of the spider. Duly caught and returned to the wild outdoors, with a warning of not to return, the family could take up their work positions without fear or dread. (who am I kidding, I’m still checking under my chair to ensure she hasn’t returned).

Now a few days later, can you believe, my 6 year old Grandson looked through his books and found an ID of the culprit.? Arachnologist, ornithologist, herpetologist or some kind of “ologist” in the making, I’m so proud of him..

This from Wikipedia had me thinking “The female spider will sometimes attempt to eat the male after mating. The male, to reduce the risk of this, will often present the female with a gift such as a fly when approaching in the hope that this will satisfy her hunger, and sometimes this gift is a fake present intended to fool the female.”  No wonder we present women with flowers and chocolates, in an attempt to stop them eating us…

This also from Wikipedia “In escaping predators, they may very well jump a distance of five or six inches.” thank the lucky stars this did not happen when I placed my camera an inch or two from her face, my camera may have become a flying saucer now being tracked by NASA as a possible invading UFO….

Here’s the photos… I’ve just had a terrible thought, can you imagine sitting on the toilet and have this visitor pop out from under the seat… it could be quite a messy affair…. The spider by the way is approx. 4 inches in length…