Strange Unknown sub-species

[Dante]

Ok, so I just got done killing two black widow spiders outside… and I’m sure there are about 100 gazillion more hiding around other dark corners of the house… but I’m less likely to bump into those locations. To one end, I HATE Black Widows… they are the… the ULTIMATE in creepiness. They look like darkness incarnate and I tremble at having to face them, even with a can of bugspray (what if they jump off and decide to defend themselves and I can’t run away fast enough like I do in my dreams!) At the same time, I know I love(d) spiders, cause I used to go around when I was a little little kid and pull off the covers of things and poke my head under the camper to get a good look at the above… yes, I used to search and hunt down Black Widows and I’m fairly sure at one point I allowed about 40 of their babies (just born) to run over my hands O_O (I was a stupid child). But mind you, I also slept with squeaky massive plastic spiders (once again about 20 at the same time) in my bed instead of Teddy Bears.

Still, as I watch them rise once again after a dousing of bugspray, I am reminded of an odd memory I distinctly have from my childhood. When I was little (looking around in places I shouldn’t have once again) I came across a spider with the exact same body shape as a black widow, having a yellow orange hourglass, but instead of black, it was white and it had orange and bright blue thin lines running in a slightly geometric pattern over it’s underbelly. It was definitely some form of Black Widow, but I can’t find it on Wikipedia… Any else ever seen this creepy, but UBER cool spider, or some other strange variation of animal you remember from childhood but can’t find today?

Pascal

[ChristianKitsune]

WOW...this is just after like... 2 ago of minutes of watching my cat eat a brown spider..(I hope it was just a wolfspider...*shiver* I thought i saw her playing with a brown recluse last summer... D:

Anyways...wow I never haerd of that..was the hour glass on the stomach?

I would have freaked if I had to kill a black widow.. seriously.. I would be moving out of that house so fast...

I remember when I was little seeing a pure white butterfly, only it seemed...really gel-like and sticky.

[Sammy Boy]

Pascal - mate, in addition to the bugspray, I have found that gloves and a thick textbook work wonders. Spiders cannot seem to develop immunity to large objects crushing down upon them.

Don't know about the spider you mentioned though...

[Esoteric]

I've never seen one exactly like that per say, but lately I've been seeing some brown and tan spiders with a disturbingly similar body shape to a widow and a yellow hourglass shape on their abdomens. I am not sure if they are related or not, but I treat them as if they are.

[Jingo Jaden]

Hmmm, some critters seem to have the ability to mutate spesial features to my body, like I remember here in Norway, where there is not one poison spider growing in the nature to my knowlegde, I once found in my livingroom a HUGE spider with what seemed as a big green thing on its back. Needless to say it was quickly stomped upon. Now, I am fairly sure seeing that its not a invited pet it is one of the biggest spiders to be found in Norway. I haven't seen a spider which resembles the type yet, however it is my thought it was not a natural spider saying that it perhaps had a few mutated features. Now I got a bit spider fear as well, I would probably have moved out the second I have heard black widows *beeing one of the ultlimate poison spiders, the females are VERY dangerus* was in the area I lived in. My guess is that one of the spiders may have had a mutated feature, how I don't know.

[mitsuki lover]

Spiders are our friends.They help to control certain pests that would otherwise
make our lives miserable.Don't kill them if you don't have to.Simply find a piece of paper and carry it outside to someplace far enough away so that it doesn't bother you any more.

[Tenshi no Ai]

I've had my share of werid looking spiders, from the days of my childhood where I played with bugs :/

I remember seeing the oddest looking ones the rare times... Like the one that was bright orange with a white abdomen, and then the fuzzy black ones with a red/orange patch on its abdomen...

I remember this one time a spider actually THRETENED me (yeah right, them being more scared of us >_<) I remember lifting over this board ones and there was some werid bugss on the other side and I poked ones side of the board with a stick, and this spider that on the other side, jumped ONTO to the stick and like, looked at me with a menacing face and all 8 eyes >_< I dropped the stick and board and ran away screaming... Yeah, the types of memories that stick with you (and it was a rather large on at that, and not of the small fuzzy jumping variety either :/)

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Pascal - mate, in addition to the bugspray, I have found that gloves and a thick textbook work wonders. Spiders cannot seem to develop immunity to large objects crushing down upon them.

Don't know about the spider you mentioned though...

The most use I ever got out of my Everquest strategy guide... *chuckles* Squashing spiders...

[USSRGirl]

Dude... you need help. WHAT DID BLACK WIDOWS EVER DO TO YOU HUH?!!! At least you let the babies get away... I mean widows are bad enough but wittle black orphan spiders? XP I once witnessed a fly mutating after I sprayed Lysol on it. O.o It was creepy.

[Radical Dreamer]

hjalgsdgshsl.

Just reading this thread will make me have nightmares, I'm sure. XD

Seriously, I'm this close to being arachnophobic, annnnd that description of the white spider is CREEPY. Not to mention the fact that you use to let BLACK WIDOWS run all over your hands. XD Myyyyy gosh, I'd be dead. Besides, Black Widows are really poisonous. o_o If I were you, I'd have called the exterminator months ago. XDD

On a lighter note, spiders (anything with an open circulatory system, really) will die eventually if they get stuck on their backs, since the heart is located at the "top" of the spider's back. Just an interesting bit. XD

Oh, and to answer the question, no, I've never seen a spider like that, and I pray that I never will. XDD

[Hakaii]

Meh. Black Widows, along with spiders in general, really don't bother me. Supposedly, you'd literally have to be an infant or elderly to die from a spider bite. But that claim may be overgeneralized. Now Scorpions, especially from Egypt, are deadly!! And Snakes, Forget the Black Widow, the Black Momba, now THAT is leathal. Poisonous creatures don't bother me as much as the ones that scurry around quickly and carry diseases. I can't stand roaches!!! They can get into anything and survive all but a good thrashing. (although, using M-80's on them seems to work, but that is overkill) Oh! and lady bugs! I don't know why, but they creep me out!!! I'd gladly hold and even hug a snake, rather than hold a ladybug.

[ChristianKitsune]

Gah.. I don't take chances with spiders.. where I live we have 2 VERY poisonous spiders.. 1. The Black Widow, and 2. the Brown Recluse.

I don't think the Brown Recluse is as deadly...as it only hurts the skin, I have actually of people who have gotten bit and they don't go to the doctor, but they keep a close eye on the wound..

my dad works in the Wind Farm industry and one time he walked into one of the turbines and straigt into a black widow's nest. He said there were baby widows climbing all over him... Luckily he wasn't bit.

Still.. yeah I am a MASSIVE arachnophobe. I can't help it.. it's easy for some people to say "DONT KILL THEM!" but not for me... I start shaking every time I see one... sometimes I can't even sleep.

I can't even bring myself to kill the spiders because I am afraid they will attack me... >.<

If I am gone for a week or even a few days from my room.. I shake out my bedding to make sure there are no "friends" in there.. because I live in my basement... and yeah spiders like my basement.

[Radical Dreamer]

I can't even bring myself to kill the spiders because I am afraid they will attack me... >.<

The only time I've really been afraid to kill a spider (at least by squishing it) is when the following thought pops in to my head: What if hundreds of baby spiders come sprawling out the moment I squish the mom?! XD It's happened in my garage once before. ::SHUDDER::

Supposedly, you'd literally have to be an infant or elderly to die from a spider bite.

Not really. There are plenty of severely venomous spiders that can kill people. Take Australia's Funnel Web Spider, for instance:

"Examination of bite records seems to indicate that wandering males have caused a large majority of fatal bites to humans. Males, recognised by the modified terminal segment of the palp, are aggressive and tend to wander during the warmer months of the year looking for receptive female of their kind for mating.[2] They are attracted to water and hence are often found in swimming pools where they have fallen while wandering. They also show up in garages and yards in suburban Sydney."

(Source Article)

Regarding the Black Widow:

"Deaths in healthy adults from Latrodectus bites are relatively rare in terms of the number of bites per thousand people. Only 63 deaths were reported in the United States between 1950 and 1989 (Miller, 1992)."

(Source Article)

Deaths are less likely, especially since there are antitoxins for bites like these, but they're still capable of killing a human.

And finally, the Brown Recluse:

"Deaths have been reported for both the brown recluse and the related South American species L. laeta and L. intermedia."

(Source Article)

And I want you all to know that I jumped several times just from scrolling down the Wikipedia page and seeing pictures of those nasty things. GAH, they creep me out so much. XDD

[Puguni]

D<! Once, I was playing tennis and I saw a flying stick bug thing! ZOMG, it was so freaky.

Then, once, my Latin classroom had an outbreak of naturally 5-legged crickets!

[Nate]

<Mod snip: This statement was completely uncalled for, unnecessary, and unedifying.>

[Mr. SmartyPants]

<Mod snip: I've deleted the unfair post to protect the feelings ov poster mentioned.>

Either way: http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/spidermyth/myths/daddyvenom.html

[Dante]

Spiders are our friends.They help to control certain pests that would otherwise
make our lives miserable.Don't kill them if you don't have to.Simply find a piece of paper and carry it outside to someplace far enough away so that it doesn't bother you any more.

Next time, I'll try that with the black widows ...

Dude... you need help. WHAT DID BLACK WIDOWS EVER DO TO YOU HUH?!!! At least you let the babies get away... I mean widows are bad enough but wittle black orphan spiders? XP I once witnessed a fly mutating after I sprayed Lysol on it. O.o It was creepy.

Actually most baby Black Widows die from cannibalism... they eat their young!

[Dante]

Wow (reading on) naturally five legged crickets and flying sticks! Uber Cool! Mind you, while Black Widows may not (normally) be deadly to adults, they have have a nasty aftershock of pain and the after effects can last for weeks... a bad way to ruin a lot of time. Also, I believe that the brown recluse is worse than the black widow and while I've not heard of many bitten by it, I know one person who claimed to have a father bitten by one way back when (one of my sisters boy friends) he said that it required six nasty big needles into the stomach to heal it if it continued to spread. Hopefully if you get bit by one of these things, they will decide not to waste the venom and give a dry bite... else you will really have a bad day.

[ChristianKitsune]

A lady that goes to my church was bit one that was in a towel. She was sick for a few days..she got really puffy and had strange rashes all over her body. She took some benadryl, and called a doctor. They said that she didn't have to see a doctor unless she had difficulty breakthing. She never did, but she did have to make sure the ulcer didn't get infected..^^;

[Sammy Boy]

Supposedly, you'd literally have to be an infant or elderly to die from a spider bite. But that claim may be overgeneralized.

Yeah, come to Australia and meet some of the spiders here, it will be good.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

You wouldn't have to be elderly or an infant, but you wouldn't want to be out in the middle of nowhere when you get bitten. Same for snake bits.
I say take Ultra's advice: Bring it on!

[Saj]

Any one ever see the movie arachnophobia? Great movie that was

[mitsuki lover]

Yep,didn't John Goodman or was it John Candy destroy an entire house though?
I have spiders in my bedroom but they don't bother me.

[Hakaii]

Hey look what a spider bite did for Spider-man! Ok, that was geekish, but I just had to let it out. By the way, Radical Dreamer, thank you for the dignified correction.

[AsianBlossom]

*Shudders* Another arachnaphobic here. I once thought I saw something floating down from the ceiling when I was in my parent's bathroom once, but I didn't give it a second thought until I looked down and saw a small spider ON MY FOOT.

Basically, my rule is that if it's behind glass, I'm fine with looking at it. No glass equals a big problem.

Oh yeah, and I once saw something when I was a lot younger...it looked like one of those fat tootsie rolls, only tan, and it was ooching across our carpet O.O

[Dante]

O_O A fat brown moving tootsie roll X_X that has got to be the oddest thing I've ever heard of.... UBER COOL!