Posted on 10/23/2008 3:40:41 PM PDT by Mikey_1962
THESE amazing images of a mammoth spider devouring a bird were taken in the backyard of an Atherton property, west of Cairns.
And the images, which are being cirulated via email worldwide, are real, according to wildlife experts.
The photos, believed to have been taken earlier this week, show the spider clenching its legs around a lifeless bird trapped in a web.
Joel Shakespeare, the head spider keeper at NSW's Australian Reptile Park, told ninemsn that the spider was a Golden Orb Weaver.
Normally they prey on large insects, it's unusual to see one eating a bird," he said.
Mr Shakepeare told ninemsn he had seen golden orb weaver spiders as big as a human hand but the northern species in tropical areas were known to grow larger.
Mr Shakespeare said the bird, a Chestnut-breasted Mannikin which appears frozen in an angel-like pose in the pictures, is likely to have flown into the web and got caught.
"It wouldn`t eat the whole bird," he told ninemsn.
"It uses its venom to break down the bird for eating and what it leaves is a food parcel," he said.
Queensland Museum's Greg Czechura is reported ninemsn as saying cases of the Golden Orb Weaver eating small birds were "well known but rare".
"It builds a very strong web," he told ninemsn.
(Excerpt) Read more at cairns.com.au ...
Don't go to the source if spiders aren't your thing.
Spiders trap birds often,espechially Humming Birds.Some of these Spiders are about the same size as a ruby throated Mummer and they will trap them in their webs.
I had a nightmare once of mosquitos as big as a hand, no one could stop them
In my Previous Post Mummer Shoud read as Hummer.
My damn big fingers just hit the wrong keys.
Burney Falls is back in, where the only spiders are of the California Barking variety.
You must be from Minnesota
OK, that is really gross but it is a situation that you keep clicking to view the next picture.....
I’ve been to Cairns (prounounced “cans” by the way)
Never saw anything like that though.
Ack!
Aussie spiders are evil!
Besides monster orb-weavers that can eat birds, you’ve go the Sydney funnel web spider with the potentially lethal bite, and two varieties the names of which I forget, but which were discussed in connection with the finding of one in his wine cellar by a late colleague:
One spider in question gives a very painful bite that takes months to heal. The question, when one was found in the wine cellar was whether to let it live because it is the deadly enemy of another species of spider that gives a very painful bite that doesn’t heal.
Keep in mind this little bird is a type of finch, and is very small (about 3 1/2 inches).
This orb weaver spider is about 3 inches total, I took this pic in my yard.
http://www.artlife.us/WP/Black%20Yellow%20Argiope%20SpiderWP.jpg
The Humming Bird’s tongue is the best part.
I only want contact with spiders I can smush, not gigantic, ugly ones that eat little tweeties.
I saw a mosquito rape a humming bird one Saturday afternoon in Southeast Asia.
Those are Jersey mosquitoes and they are real...
They look at DEET the way we look at ketchup.
OK, I laughed. I believe it, but I laughed.
Doesn’t matter how venomous the bite was-I’d literally have a heart attack and die if I had one of those damned things anywhere near me.
I almost ran into a giant spider web in Asia years ago of the genus Nephilum (SP). That bad boy was about the same size, coloration and physiognomy of this sucker. Didn’t even see him - lucky I spotted the web first. I pitched a couple pebbles at him and he only flexed a leg or two. Would’ve been a cool speciment to take home but Customs might have objected.
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