Spider

I'm camping right now -- where camping means sleeping in a tent on a lawn and having a wireless network available. It's the first time in my life I've ever slept outside or in a tent and I'm having a nice time. However, while eating lunch we saw this spider walking briskly through the lawn.

Does anyone know what kind of spider this is?

Comments

[Ben]

I think it's this: Argiope trifasciata (Banded Argiope).

[john]

I think the correct classification for that arachnid is "scary freaking spider".
That spider just looks tough. Jeez.
It's kind of hard to tell how big that thing is from the picture. How big was it? Most of the spiders I find around my place in Portland, are maybe the size of a dime....at biggest.

[Jodi]

I believe it is of the very rare INKY DINKY variety.

[Dennis]

Holy crap, that's a big friggin' garden spider! Brings back childhood traumas. Is that an actual photo of the one that skittered across your lawn?

[Brooke]

That guy pictured above is exactly why I will never go camping. Ever.

[Kitta]

Whatever it is I know its evil, I hate spiders.

Be sure to do a torch hand puppet show when darkness falls, its fun for all involved.

[Simon Jessey]

You have perfectly encapsulated why I am not an "outdoors person" with that image. I've never really been freaked-out by spiders, but somehow you have managed to make that thing look like a giant monster.

I hate bugs in general. In fact, they are one of the few things that were difficult to come to terms with when I moved from the UK to the US. In England, bugs were fewer in number, presumably because of the fact that the UK is an island.

But spiders are a Really Good Thing, because they help eliminate some of the Really Bad Things, such as mosquitoes and wasps. Wasps are my personal nemesis. They love me. They flirt with me. The seek me out in a crowd.

::: shiver :::

[Don]

Hate spiders. Hate HATE HATE 'em. I can coexist with them, and I don't kill them when I find them in my apartment (I trap 'em and take 'em outside), but the thought of them makes me cringe.

And that photo made me twitch involuntarily even though as I type this I am seated in a nice safe suburban Starbucks with my vanilla latté and my cell phone and my iBook, about as far from the possibility of death by spider bite as I could possibly be.

gah!

[Zorbs]

I had a nightmare a few weeks ago about giant 3 foot spiders who were out to get me. That dude looks likes one of their close cousins.

[dusty]

spiders upset me. :[ kill it!

[Dan Brickley]

Thanks! I was feeling bad for having slept inside
at Foo, but knowing that *thing* was out there somewhere I reckon I made the right
(if cowardly) choice ;)

[Swami Prem]

You mean to tell me you are camping in your backyard?

[empey]

I find it intriguing that most of the posters so far have remarked on fear or dislike of spiders, which we might expect to encounter in the Great Outdoors. No one has remarked that you mentioned having a wireless network available while you were camping. (Okay, so you're in somebody's yard. Minor detail. =) )

I'm ready to beam up anytime.

[John]

If, by chance, you're camping near a genetics lab or a nuclear power plant, maybe there's an opportunity to gain super powers. Or a movie franchise.

Otherwise, flee.

[Tom]

[If you were camping in your backyard:] The nice thing is, there are only two known dangerous spiders in California: Black Widow (they're everywhere) and the Brown Recluse. The spider pictured is neither. There may be a transient Hobo Spider from the north from time to time but we are not seeing that either.

I am not an arachnid professional but I did a ton of research this weekend when I found a cool looking spider in my daughter's outside playhouse and found all of this out (from multiple educational facilities). I also found that:

A) All spiders are venomous
B) While the male Black Widow has dangerouse poison, it cannot puncture adult human skin
C) Most spiders cannot pierce adult human skin.
D) Most spider venom is not dangerous to [most] humans.

Interesting - It makes me want to pick up more spiders, something that used to freak me out.

[William Beem]

To some folks, the name of that spider would be "Eeewww!" Me, I kind of leave them alone if they don't bother me. That's not to say that I wouldn't be above relocating the insect if it creeped me out.

Congratulations on sleeping outside. I thought everyone did this a few times when they were kids. Perhaps you were deprived (or spoiled) as a child? Next trip, try leaving the technology behind. Nature is too wonderous to have such distractions with you.

[Gina]

I for one am a big camping girl, but never once in my years of camping have I seen a spider so F

[Tim Hatch]

I'm guessing it's an Arigope too, but I won't make a guess about what species (I found these links last night before reading Ben's post).

Almost exact matches at:
http://www.arachnology.org/Arachnology/Pages/Orbweb.html (third photo)
http://home.earthlink.net/~twhelan/insect/pages/Img_2235_B_argiope_crop2.htm
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~plank/plank/pics/spider.html

[Matt Westervelt]

I think everyone took a picture of that spider.

I noticed it after everyone had eaten lunch hanging out on this plate.

[Bren]

Spider... mmm..... the spider mmmmm..... spiderman :3 ??? ahahahahhah great site!

[Chris]

That is the one spider you should not squash; there would be too much blood--it would be like severing a limb!

[Adam]

Disclaimer: I'm no spiderphile-- to any extent.

I read once that the way that spiders move is without muscle. That they pump blood in and out of their legs, causing them to move.

Is this accurate? If so, that's really freaking cool.

[Nik]

Creepy (often tickly) stuff aside... doesn't the symmetry and beauty of the thing just amaze you?

Spiders, in most cases, are known to be pretty gentle beings. A booth at an 'Insect Fair' on my college campus sought to dispel fears and/or myths about spiders. I don't know what I was on, but let a beautiful woman talk me into holding a tarantula. It was so darn gentle (albeit a bit too... big, relatively)! You must try it! ;)

And of course... my attempts at snitching a date (with the arachnophile) were pretty unsuccessful... bummer.

Cheers!

[yi]

it looks to be a saint andrew's cross spider. they are harmless but look scary as hell because of their size. when they are in their nest they hold their legs in a position that looks like a cross, thus the name. also if they get annoyed they will start rocking in the nests back and forth violently. i found one of these last year at the office i was contracting at and looked it up online. they are quite beautiful.

[Robert Denton]

Spider of the BIG & SCARY sort!!! Run away.

No really? First time sleeping in a tent? Fo shizzle?

You ought to now start a tour of the national parks with a tent in tow. Sure you can stay at the lodge in some of them but the tent option is really fun.

I recommend starting with Big Bend in Texas. Not that I am biased about having grown up in Texas or anything...