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Ok, first of all, calm down Shars. It was dead before it arrived at my work. Come down off the ceiling, right now! :D

My co-worker put it on our creative director's computer-writing tablet. When he spied the spider he just about knocked me on my ass, trying to exit the tiny room that is his office. :eek::D

(You didn't mention if I'm on the "git-list" for posting the pic. Would it matter if I had posted it just to freak you out? :p )

BTW - Flemtone, that was simply a classic line! LMAO :D

Duke, it's not a wolf spider, though I saw a 2 1/2" diameter leg span, wolf spider in a nearby creek. The biggest one I've seen in my home was about 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" in leg span.

According to a gentleman at that "What's That Bug?" website, this is a species of Dolomedes Fishing Spider. That's all he had to say about it.

Oh, and blue2blue, this female had hundreds of live babies around it where it was discovered, according to my co-worker. I don't know if the deflation you noticed is a result of laying eggs or simply from the rapid drying out that occurs in bugs after they die. (Or sometimes the cause of their death through starvation or dehydration.)

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Originally posted by fantasticsound


According to a gentleman at that "What's That Bug?" website, this is a species of Dolomedes Fishing Spider. That's all he had to say about it.

 

 

So are you going to drink beer in the metal-flecked bass boat with it?

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Originally posted by fantasticsound

Where does that put
Flem
and
Boosh
?!?


Like
Spencer
, I'm honored!
:cool:

Did I get points for calling you attractive before or lose points for pointing out the lack of a really good picture of that beauty?
:D


Hmmm, forget them 2, got my eyes set on you getting to No1 and for the record, none of the above but nice of you to say so FS ;)

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Yeah, Lee, according to the "bugman" at the What's That Bug? website, it is a fishing spider.

I don't know exactly where my co-worker lives, but Hendersonville is on the Cumberland River and has many creeks, etc. that empty into it.

Thanks for the additional confirmation. I'd never seen one of these spiders before and the river is about a mile from my house. I'll have to take Lilly down there. She's with you.. Spiders are kewl! (So am I, so long as they ain't in my bed or my food. ;) )

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Originally posted by fantasticsound

Oh, and
blue2blue
, this female had hundreds of live babies around it where it was discovered, according to my co-worker. I don't know if the deflation you noticed is a result of laying eggs or simply from the rapid drying out that occurs in bugs after they die. (Or sometimes the cause of their death through starvation or dehydration.)

 

 

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I don't know that I mentioned it before, but it was the circumference of the legs that made me think it had been a much larger spider in its heyday.

 

I usually don't think of California as having much in the way of big insects (I mean, some of the bugs your read about and see pictures of from the bayous and swamps down south... eeyikes.) But maybe, compared to other parts of the country, we really do get some kind of ranking.

 

We used to have huge moths, too. When I was a kid, every once in a while you'd see a moth with an 8 or 10" wingspan and a 5 or 6" body. Usually they were in the mouth of a really proud cat... I've only seen moths that big flying around here once or twice... it's pretty jawdropping... they seem barely able to fly and it seems impossible that they could. I've seen one or two as big as 6 or 7" in the last decade or so, but their habitat (whatever the hell it would be) has largely disappeared (safe to say, there isn't a lot of open ground on this side of the mountains that hasn't been paved.)

 

We also used to get some pretty cool hairy spiders. We always thought of them as tarrantulas. My cousin had one for quite a while he found by the railroad tracks behind his house that was pet store sized (3" or so across). After I got over the horror I thought he was really cool.

 

In fact, I was deathly afraid of spiders as a little kid -- and rattlesnakes, too. Very inconvenient in the sourthern California of the 50's and 60's.

 

Not sure how I got over it. I think it helped when I got a snake bite kit and drilled on rattlesnake first aid. And also, perhaps paradoxically, when I found out just how many rattlers were around. I knew there were plenty but when I read there was probably one every 100 square feet in a lot of areas I think I figured, hey, I haven't been bit yet and the place is lousy with 'em...

 

Also, I knew in my heart of hearts that no girl I would ever want to be with would be able to tolerate a man who was afraid of rattlesnakes, let alone spiders. Now, those Texas-sized flying cockroaches, on the other hand. Hell, I fell justified. One got into my old house somehow and even my cats were utterly petrified. I mean one of these cats went after a huge rabit once... But he ran and hid in the other room under some cabinets when he saw this thing come fluttering and clacking out from the curtains... it was pretty amazing. It was flippin' huge, about 6" or so long. Relatively easy to kill but it gives me the creeps thinking about it to this day.

 

 

Insects shouldn't be big enough to give names to, you know?

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