Email 'Arachnophobes love them': Sydney scientist's 'adorable' spider discovery

abc ^

[ETL]

[Ann Archy]

Just proves once again that GOD has a sense of humor!!

[Pravious]

“Even people who hate spiders, extreme arachnophobes love these spiders. They can’t help it.”

Not to me. Spiders aren’t cute, even if they’re tie-dyed.

[Daffynition]

Terrific! A Saturday spidey thread!

[ops33]

I heard a funnel web spider can kill a man just by looking at him.

[Caipirabob]

Lol...very interesting. We have a love hate relationship with spiders in the desert. Tarantulas are fascinating and then again you have black widows and other nasties. One of my buddies stuck his hand in a lid over a pool skimmer and was within 2 inches of BW on the underside and didn’t know it until someone nearby pointed it out. We’ve finally seen a wild tarantula and even though it was wild a fellow nearby picked it right up and placed it gently in a wooded grove. Good man there, just glad the tarantula thought the same... :)

[exDemMom]

Well, those little guys are of the size where I get them to crawl on my hand so I can take them outside.

Any spider larger than about 1/4” gets the cup and paper treatment. Unless it’s a black widow, then it gets the Raid treatment.

I wonder why the little spiders have so much fur? The strands look like they are too far apart to insulate... but that’s Australia, where it is warm—maybe the fur acts to shield, not insulate?

[Lx]

So cute.

[Moonman62]

In the spider world, men do the pole dancing.

[JoeProBono]

[AF_Blue]

That one will be ready to move into the Forbidden Forest and join Aragog’s family in a few years.

[JoeProBono]

[BuffaloJack]

Spiders are not cute. Not even these.

Spider locomotion is fascinating though.
The only muscle a spider uses for walking and moving about is its heart. The legs and all moveable appendages move by hydraulics. Tendons pull the legs in and hydraulics (inflating bladders) extend the legs. Kill a spider and all the legs contract because they lose hydraulic pressure.

[Covenantor]

Whoa! Little Rasta mon....

[bert]

said the spider to the fly....... I’m keeping an eye on you

[Kirkwood]

The Richard Simmons of the spider world.

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

[Covenantor]

Kill a spider and all the legs contract because they lose hydraulic pressure.

Well, a lot depends on how one kills the spider. Nano Kung Fu, sure, a swift heart strike produces that result.

However, when the nasty ones get taken out around here it's pretty much flat splat city.

[MarkL]

Of course, that’s a 90 foot pencil.

Mark