Confusingly, there’s another North American spider that’s in the same genus as the Australian one: Nephila clavipes, commonly referred to as the Banana Spider, or… the Golden Orb Weaver. They’re fairly common down here in Florida.
Always happy to help a fellow arachnophobe
Of course in Australia it is venomous. I think the grass in Australia is venomous. The fucking platypus is venomous. At least kangaroos are not poisonous.
I live here in Queensland and I’ve lived in peaceful co-existence with Golden Orb Weaver spiders for years. They’re not aggressive but their webs are really messy and, if you walk through a web unawares, you transfer the sticky mess to yourself.
I have much more fear of the Redback spiders, a close relative to the Black Widow native to the US.
Ah yes, the Fucking Platypus, pornstar of the freshwater lagoon. Their young, called fucklings, are known for having loud sex in picnic areas.
Adult Fucking Platypi can fly (only the fucklings are flightless) and, due to their reproductive exuberance, are very common in their native territories, to the point where hunting them for their pelts is extremely unprofitable (anyone who wants a Fucking jacket can shoot their own platypi and go fuck themselves), leading to the saying “I don’t give a flying fuck.”
That’s tough but fair.
You realise this will only result in giant, radioactive mutant spiders, right? :eek:
A recovered arachnophobe here - who overdid the cure. I am irrationally obsessed with spiders now. Just need to get my bias up front.
99.9999999% of the time, spiders get eaten by birds. Bird eating spiders don’t usually eat birds. The web of the extraordinarily docile Nephila pilipes happens to be so strong it occasionally catches one. The spider will kill the bird because it is in its web and its struggles will wreck it. It may manage to digest some of it (they digest externally and then suck up the slurp). But birds are not their preferred or usual food.
The species is now technically known as Nephila pilipes - family Nephilidae. This is recent - lots of changes happening with spider classification. The American Argiope spp. is not the equivalent. They are the black and yellow spiders, or writing spiders, or often just Argiope (family Araneidae, with most of the orb weavers). In Australia, Argiope are best known as St Andrew’s Cross Spiders. Nephila clavipes (as mentioned above) is in the same genus as the bird eater. Nephila are the golden orb weavers because of the colour of their webs and are generally bigger than Argiope.
Nephila are so docile they can be handled with ease and will not bite. But they are delicate - so don’t do it. You might hurt them. Gorgeous creatures!
As for Australia’s deadly critters - we have deadly spiders and snakes in the back yard. The snakes require respect, but with care you are safe. Spiders - no hassle. No one has died of a spider bite in Australia in decades. My brother went camping in America and had the tent ripped open by bears. That would NEVER happen here. Give me spiders any day!
I’m going to hold you personally responsible when we discover the Radioactive Road-Train-Eating Funnelweb.
I remain unconvinced that it’s even possible for Australia to be any more mutated than it is now.
The climax of David George Gordon’s wonderful Eat a Bug Cookbook is a recipe for Giant Bird-Eating Spider
http://www.davidgeorgegordon.com/
The spider he was preparing was a South American spider, which I gather is much bigger than the one shown in the link in the OP.
The first step in rthe recipe is to take scissors and cut off the poison fangs.
Unfortunately, Gordon couldn’t make his recipe – the Giant Spider he had ordered, shipped from South America on Dry Ice, had thawed on the way and spoiled.
Maybe he’ll be making an offer to the Australians for one of theirs.
I was at the Lamb’s Farm holiday craft fair a couple years ago. One of the vendors had a spider that was easily 8-10 inches across (framed nicely, I might add). It was just awesome in it’s terrifying spideriness. He wanted $100 for it. I was going to buy it for Kid Kalhoun, but I couldn’t afford it. And I couldn’t bear the thought of it sitting in my closet for weeks…coming back to life and plotting my demise.
I just want to know the exact size of this damn thing. Because the bird it’s got a hold on looks like a damn chicken. Someone please reassure me that the bird is actually only about 1 inch from beak to tail…pretty pretty please…I’m so scared…
And poot on you Derleth, I opened my thread before you and you STILL got all the good posts, cheater. I need to learn how to word my titles better I guess.
goes to sit in corner and pout, and shiver, and wet himself thinking about that damn spider
The bird is a Chestnut breasted Mannikin, wich averages about 4 feet. Errr, sorry…make that 10cm.
How is it that the venom of these spiders is poisonous to birds and mammals? These spiders eveolved long ago, at a time when insects were their prey. Even now, I doubt that birds are frequently caught and eaten by spiders. Anyway, yeecch. I can identify with a bird or a mouse-they are closer to us than the alien-like spiders.
I’ve fed small lizards and fairly large mice to Goliath birdeaters before. When it comes to a spider eating a bird, all I can say is… “Cool!”
Let the bird go, you filth! Let him go! You will not touch him again!
This post and that link are full of win.