Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Let's call this one Mr. Hubbard

So Clay has valiantly limped out in his front yard, broken ankle and all, and provided us with a beautiful shot of Mr. Hubbard:

Looks like he's got himself a cricket or maybe even a circada. Its hard to see the actual web, but trust me, it's flucktacular. Its huge and extends probably 5 to 7 feet at it's breadth.

I blew the pic up and altered the levels to get a better picture of him:

That's his actual color, yellow and black. Isn't that amazing? It kinda looks like a tick.

Alright...let the search begin. Tell me what this thorny little fellow's true name is and you get free tickets to the next Saint's home game. No...i'm just fucking around...everybody knows you can't get tickets to a Saint's game.

Update: I think we have a winner, from Anon:

she is the spinybacked orbweaver -
Gasteracantha cancriformis


the perfect metaphor for "parochial deal-cutting atmosphere that is suffocating our recovery" (see link for boring details below) if I ever saw one. nice one Zombie. Hat's off. JB for Mayor!

"Niche partitioning in orb-weaver spiders of Louisiana"

http://sciencewhynot.blogspot.com/2009/05/niche-partitioning-in-orb-weaver.html

Update 2: In the strange synchronicity which only the intertubes can provide, I opened my browser to Wired's home page to find that 1 million Orb weavers have joined forces to create a golden silk blanket. Perhaps Mr. Hubbard (the real one) can spend his 1 million dollars on that blanket to keep himself warm in the clink.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whoa! That's a spider? That's awesome.

I thought all the web spinning spiders were girl spiders.

Did E.B. White and his talking pig mess me up for life?

Is it possible that Mr. Hubbard is a Mister Spider?

I don't care if he's a Mister or a Sister, whatever he is, he is freaking cool.

Thanks for the picture.

Leigh C. said...

There's about three or four of those spinning webs regularly in my backyard. I knew which type you were referring to even before you took this picture.

http://www.spiderzrule.com/jewelspider.htm

Looks like a jewelled spider.

Anonymous said...

she is the spinybacked orbweaver -
Gasteracantha cancriformis


the perfect metaphor for "parochial deal-cutting atmosphere that is suffocating our recovery" (see link for boring details below) if I ever saw one. nice one Zombie. Hat's off. JB for Mayor!

"Niche partitioning in orb-weaver spiders of Louisiana"

http://sciencewhynot.blogspot.com/2009/05/niche-partitioning-in-orb-weaver.html

Anonymous said...

That spider silk blanket story was one of the most amazing things I have learned about in a long time. Thank you.

NOLATrey said...

Mowing the lawn today I found 6--yes, six! of these in the back yard of the Plantation. Also found two of the tiny green orb-weavers (leucauge venusta).

On Monday, a friend of the name "Hubbard" will be visiting! (no relation, btw)

Strange coincidence? I don't know.

But it's time to put on the tinfoil hat and hide from the rouge politicians.

charlotte said...

Thank Ashe'! I have these critters & their huge webs all ovah my back yard. (I have lotsa vegetation - heh) It's like spider-land---now I know what the hell they are. Thanks to anon!

Sam Jasper said...

Hey thanks for that! I have a couple guys in my front yard, shaped very much like that, a little less spiky, and black and white. Looks like they have a happy face on their backs in black spots. They're the coolest spiders I've ever seen. Maybe this will give me a place to start. I've been trying to find out what they are for months.

Clay said...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/giant-spider/

Largest Orb Web Spider ever found.