Yesterday morning, I took a photo of this same spider with my cell phone. It was in the process of draining the insides of a fly. I walked up to my office and worked for a couple of hours then returned by the same route. The spider was still there, but with a larger abdomen. The drained skin of the fly was probably on the ground below in step toward becoming part of the soil. I still don't know how to get photos from my phone into my computer, so maybe when I get some help, you'll see those photos at a later date. Meanwhile, when I approached the same Daisy this morning, there she was, waiting for another meal. As I approached with my larger DSLR camera, she spread her forelegs in a combat pose (above). That was short lived (below) as she sought to hide on the underside of the flower.
I tipped the stem to get another look, and...
...she did not panic. Just held fast. Sometimes they'll quickly drop to the ground on a single thread they seem to spin with amazing speed and ease.
I was asked last night if these are poisonous. YES. All spiders are poisonous, but none around this area are menacing to humans unless they are very careless. Some spiders cannot penetrate human skin, so they don't even try. Some can give a healthy bite (oxymoron?), but are not even close to deadly. Then the bite of some, like the Black Widow, can make a person pretty sick, and rarely result in death. Very rarely! Your chances of getting shot by a fellow human are much, much greater. Also, if you learn a little about where Black Widows are found, you can be careful to not poke around where the chances of being bitten are higher. AS you can see above, my fingers re quite close to the spider. No worries!
Last night's presentations at camp included comments and questions about bears, rattlesnakes, and other possible animal threats to humans. My next post will include my views about THREATS: RATIONAL and IRRATIONAL. For the most part, it's the animals that should be frightened, not us.
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