One of the wonderful joys of exploring!
Here are my top 7 nerve-racking abandonment
spider encounters and the locations where
they were found... in order from the
least to the most hellish....
#7.
A secluded residential abandonment outside of Toronto
harbored this gorgeous yellow-legged beauty in an inside
doorway. I almost walked right through its web... #6: A decrepit cottage on the shoreline of Lake Erie had
numerous spiders catching flies coming in off the water.
Spanning a broken window was this spiky-legged monster.... #5: A rather new but condemned developer house near
Hamilton, Ontario, had this soft, cuddly critter living
in the kitchen doorway.... #4: This gorgeous old farmhouse had nylon twine hanging
from a light fixture that I almost walked into while
backing up to take a photo in the laundry room. I would
have brushed right into this orb weaver.... #3: This ruined and overgrown farm was home to a
gorgeous, bright red creepy-crawly that I have not
encountered since. It was a Neoscona arabesca, aka
Arabesque Orbweaver. The unusual colour on this one
showed they can be without the spiffy designs on
the abdomen that are common to the species
and still be gorgeous. #2: The siding on this windmill farm abandonment was home
to a particularly threatening-looking beastie that held
its ground for a tight macro. I'm actually almost certain
it's also an Arabesque Orbweaver, but a slightly different
colour variation. They're harmless and just look nasty
in macro. #1: The old stone dock of the Barclay Estate ruins in
Algonquin Provincial Park was home to a dreaded
Dolomedes tenebrosus (Dark Fishing Spider) of particularly
large size. I was thrilled when the Australian Museum
in Sydney commissioned use of this photo in their
Spiders: Fear & Fascination travelling exhibit,
which was featured at the Royal Ontario Museum
June 2018-Jan 2019 and is currently in Brisbane. _________________________________________ Well, I do have to say, as nasty as these individuals
were, they're still nowhere near as disgusting and
horrific as my
true exploration nemesis!!....
(looking down my pant leg after a particularly
nasty exploration in the Niagara region)