Keeping me company
OK, seriously, how am I supposed to focus on coding when this monster is hanging about three feet away from my door (which is open to let in the breeze)? It’s so big that I found Barkley in its web this morning, poor pup, and when I tried to shoo it away with a broom, it broke the handle over one of its leg pairs.
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That’s a mo’ fo’ alright
Worried, I even entered the IRC channel to see if you were alive, Elan.
You’re not there. Please, give us a sign. Don’t tell us you’ve gone against this thing with anything less armored than Iron-Man-Grade!
Cool, it could be the X in the OSXBMC logo. =)
Aren’t spiders supposed to have eight legs??
New unofficial OSXBMC mascot…funny how these things work out. Pretty cool leg configuration too.
@SaSaSushi: It actually does, if you look closely the legs are paired up. Strange, right? Unholy, one might say.
yes this one you see, what about all the ones that are already inside, HIDING ?
@pike
Now you’re just trying to distract him.
I remember the Haiku blood sucking jumping spiders!
Why would you post that?
Now I’m going to have trouble sleeping.
Bastard.
i think its o’reilly testing covers for his new osx book
Lucky you’re not in Peru elan -> http://www.bugman123.com/Bugs/BirdEatingSpider.jpg
But then again, we have much more dangerous ones here in Australia. We’re used to it.
It is the risk of being… on the web!
As long as I dont see rabbits from castle of aaaarrghh with big nasty teeth throwing holy hand grenades at me I’m fine
elan, thou shall count to four…no three!
This is your buddy:
St Andrew’s Cross Spider
Habitat and Biology
The St Andrew’s Cross spider commonly builds its web amongst shrubs and other vegetation or against walls of buildings. It normally hangs upside down in the web with two paired legs placed along each arm of the cross. The silken cross may be used for strengthening the web, for camouflage or for enhancing prey catches. It has been shown that the cross reflects ultra-violet light which is particularly attractive to insects. Egg sacs are pear-shaped, green in colour and are suspended in nearby vegetation rather than in the web itself.
Colour
Male: Cephalothorax and legs brown; abdomen cream with a mottled brown pattern.
Female: Cephalothorax brown and covered with silky hairs. Abdomen with horizontal stripes of yellow and crimson brown, sometimes with pale spots on the brown stripes. Legs dark brown to black with a few yellowish bands.
Form
Small-bodied with relatively long legs; often appears to have only four legs due to resting position in web. Male much smaller than female.
Body Length
Male: 4mm
Female: 20mm
Web type
Orb web with a cross of thick silk through its centre.
Bite
The bite of this spider is considered harmless or at most to cause a weak local reaction. Few bites have been recorded.
You will not find these in The Netherlands:P
I’ve seen a number of these on my home’s property in central Virginia. They’re actually quite harmless and do a great job of keeping down the tick, flee and mosquito populations. I’ve accidentally walked right through their webbing before and never been bitten… freaked out a bit, yes, but they’d rather run away that try to take you on. I’d say it’s a good omen… and when the XBMC Cookbook comes out from O’reilly in two years, we’ll know what to have on the cover.
snark,
Etienne
Elan,
We’ve got about ten of these around our yard…..kinda cool webs with the cross that their legs match to while they wait to catch big dogs for dinner……….
Seriously though, that’s a baby spider mate, we’ve got MUCH bigger and funner ones here in Sydney………
Just tell Barkley to watch it and you get back to coding!!! Cheers mate
Elan, it’s hard to tell the size. Photos can be easily deceptive so that spider could really just be a wee nipper of only 1 mm long!
Take a photo for us with your (or your wifes) hand REAL CLOSE to it (or even holding it) then post the photo so we can tell how big it really is!
Keep up the good work.
Her fangs look pretty small…agree with Marco that she’s harmless and probably keeping the mosquitos out of your room…
Compared to the camel spiders I saw in Iraq, your friend is a mere decoration!
Dang! that’s one cool picture! if you have that one in higher res don’t hesitate to publish it for download.
Nice work on the logo….