Book of the spider.

[m0lsx]

I have just acquired a book first published in 1994 called The Book of the Spider by Paul Hillyard. It's not a book that many will read from cover to cover, but more a book that many will dip into for it's diverse collection of random facts about Arachnids.

Everything from Arachnophobia to how far an Australian Barking Spider (Selenocosmia crassipes,) has been known to drag as chicken. Which is 50 feet (16 meters.) Apparently it had one of the chicken legs down it's burrow. It also reports a P regalis eating a small rat.

This is certainly an interesting book to dip into.

 

[Jeef]

That sounds like a fun book! I always thought barking spiders was a euphemism! I also manage to be a wealth of useless knowledge, so this would be right up my alley.

I recently scored "Spiders of North America," by Sarah Rose. Also, not a cover-to-cover type book, but very useful for tentatively identifying some of the oddballs one might see around here. No tarantulas in it, but it has everything else. There are around 100 pages just on jumping spiders alone.

 

[m0lsx]

We have a 3, I think it is. Selenocosmia crassipes, here. All are still juvi's & we have yet to hear any of them make a sound. However, our largest stermi does a great hiss, which can be clearly heard from several feet away.

The thing to be most aware of with Selenocosmia crassipes, is the potency of their venom with dogs. We have two dachshunds & it's something we very aware of. If a crassipies bite has been witnessed to kill a large Austrailian Shepherd in as little as 45 minutes, what chance would a dachshund stand?