Arachnids...

Today after church I spent a few hours mowing the lawn and tidying up the yard. I found a few spiders and thought you would all like to see them. But first let me set things straight, I don't like spiders. I am in awe of their intricate beauty, but they still give me the willies. So to take a picture of one, or two is not a big deal, as long as they stay put and don't go crawlin' where they ain't wanted.

I found this one in an empty dog water bowl. He/she (?) is about as big as a small apple and it couldn't get out of the smooth metal bowl. It could sure jump though. When I was done taking it's picture I tilted the bowl down so it could get out and it ran fast and then leaped into the grass of the nearby yard. Also, all those little specks on its thorax (rear end) are baby spiders. I know this because they were moving around when I was taking it's photo.

This is not the best picture of this type because I couldn't get direct light onto it. But there are a lot of these in our potted plants and poinseta tree in front of the house. They have a really neatly shaped thorax and usually have their legs together as shown above for some reason. This one is not very big about like a half dollar coin.

While we're on the subject of biology, come back tommorow for more biological happenings here at the Cannon house.