Spiders Infest!

This is my latest treasury (which you see here if you're really quick! It will disappear forever on Saturday...) and despite it's spidery theme, I'm not a particularly big spider fan. I don't hate spiders like I used to, and I can just about take a photo of one if it's not too big (and definitely NOT like The Marvelous A's massive spider!!). I do love cobwebs, especially the ones like in Damaged's photo, glittering with droplets of dew or rain.

I do generally like all insects, even though I'm not keen on getting close to many of them. I appreciate them, and especially the pretty ones like ladybirds and shiny beetles! If you care about insects too, you may like to join in with a Bug Hunt - organised by Buglife, the UK conservation charity. Click here for details: http://www.buglife.org.uk/News/
... but you'll have to be quick, it's taking place this weekend, Friday 2 October - Sunday 4 October 2009!

The photo below was taken by Mathew, my partner, who isn't scared to pick up spiders at all, and he wanted to get a pic of this one so he's the photographer as well (thank you Mathew!). However, this isn't really a true spider.

It's called a harvestman, or harvester spider, or daddy-long-legs (but not to be confused with craneflies which are also referred to as daddy-long-legs, but they are completely different... they've got wings!). The harvestman differs from spiders in a few ways but the most notable is that it only has two eyes, mounted on a tiny little "turret" called an ocularium. And neither do they spin webs. These things used to creep me out when I was a kid, and they still do!

More information on harvestmen on UK Safari: http://www.uksafari.com/harvestmen.htm

Sweet dreams (ie not of giant spiders!)

Joey xx