This is a redback spider in between the glass and screen of my window. I took these pictures right before I decided it was a good idea to get rid of her. Sorry about the poor picture quality - I don't think my camera was meant for high quality close-up images of relatively small spiders at night. There are lots of good pictures of them elsewhere if you really want to see them...like here (although good pictures seem to make them look big...they're only about 1 cm long).
You can still sort of see the red pattern - in this picture its actually the hourglass-type shape underneath the abdomen as opposed to the red stripe down the back (sorry...I didn't feel like playing with it to try to get it in a better position haha). I tried with flash, without flash, super high quality, the crazy no-shaking option, etc., but it just was probably not in the best position...must not be a very photogenic spider. I decided it was in fact a female (which are the ones with the venom), because it seemed bigger than the males I had seen with my professor (which are actually quite small and not considered venomous, since they are too small to properly bite a person). It also had sort of the spherical back thing going on that they seem to have. But it's gone now...I'm not actually feeling all that upset about removing the venomous spider from my room...even though it was in the window and not in my room...there's no real remorse over this one. You know, sometimes you feel bad getting rid of the daddy-long-legs...they're just doing their thing eating other spiders...but this one had to go.
One good thing I found out in this process...they seem to be quite timid. When I first slid the window open it ran away. I guess even when you're one of the most venomous things on the planet you'd still be happy to just leave and not put up a fight. Of course there might be some other reason...maybe it takes a lot of energy to make the venom or something and it makes more sense to run...but I'm happy either way.
In other news, "Border Security" is one of the most amusing TV shows here. It's sort of a reality show of people crossing the border and what happens in customs. You'd be amazed at what people try to cross the border with. It's highly entertaining.
You can still sort of see the red pattern - in this picture its actually the hourglass-type shape underneath the abdomen as opposed to the red stripe down the back (sorry...I didn't feel like playing with it to try to get it in a better position haha). I tried with flash, without flash, super high quality, the crazy no-shaking option, etc., but it just was probably not in the best position...must not be a very photogenic spider. I decided it was in fact a female (which are the ones with the venom), because it seemed bigger than the males I had seen with my professor (which are actually quite small and not considered venomous, since they are too small to properly bite a person). It also had sort of the spherical back thing going on that they seem to have. But it's gone now...I'm not actually feeling all that upset about removing the venomous spider from my room...even though it was in the window and not in my room...there's no real remorse over this one. You know, sometimes you feel bad getting rid of the daddy-long-legs...they're just doing their thing eating other spiders...but this one had to go.
One good thing I found out in this process...they seem to be quite timid. When I first slid the window open it ran away. I guess even when you're one of the most venomous things on the planet you'd still be happy to just leave and not put up a fight. Of course there might be some other reason...maybe it takes a lot of energy to make the venom or something and it makes more sense to run...but I'm happy either way.
In other news, "Border Security" is one of the most amusing TV shows here. It's sort of a reality show of people crossing the border and what happens in customs. You'd be amazed at what people try to cross the border with. It's highly entertaining.
Labels: Miscellaneous, Wildlife
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