Rare spider found in Texas shuts down $15M million construction project

FoxNews.com ^ | September 13, 2012

[ConorMacNessa]

A rare spider discovered at a construction site in San Antonio has shut down a $15 million project as federal and state officials consider ways to continue without disrupting the arachnid’s natural habitat.

The spider, identified as a Braken Bat Cave Meshweaver, is an endangered, non-venomous species that lives in caves, has no eyes and is virtually translucent. Josh Donat, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation, said the recent discovery is only the second time the species has been spotted in more than 30 years.

"This is the second individual spider that's ever been found,” Donat told FOX 29. “It's not like we found 1 of 5,000 individuals in a species. This is the second time this species has ever been seen by human eyes. The last time it was seen was 32 years ago in 1980 in a little piece of property not far from here."

Donat said the construction project near Highway 151 and Wiseman Road, which began in April, will be put on hold indefinitely as U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials and the Federal Highway Administration consider ways to proceed. The project became subject to the Endangered Species Act once the rare spider was discovered, he said.

The find could halt the project altogether, officials said, as residents who live in the North San Antonio Hills section say they’re frustrated with the situation.

[SpaceBar]

This was on the radio news the other day. Apparently the way it works is that the various work crews are followed around by a federal government biologist (think commisar) that scrutinizes every shovelful of dirt to make sure there isn’t any endangered critters in there. My intuition tells me that this is a requirement for taking federal highway dollars. Be a shame if any of them were to have accidents.

[ConorMacNessa]

Thanks, FRiends for the many clever repies - I believe we are of like mind on this one - and by the way:

I don't cotton to spiders!!!



Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[Starstruck]

True story. I was reading this when a wolf spider came running out toward my hand operating the mouse. I was also watching a DVR of Redeye at the time and the remote I had in my left hand ended any possibility of this spider infringing on my continued multi-tasking.

[ConorMacNessa]

I was working on a project in an older building in Rosslyn (Arlington) VA - one of the women on the project was bitten in the leg by a spider that popped out of a box full of documents - don't know if it was a wolf spider, but whatever it was hurt her big time - flesh eating, etc. She took weeks to recover.



Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[Starstruck]

Probably Brown Recluse.

[TribalPrincess2U]

Any time I see a spider I check to make sure I don’t need to call someone
who might identify it as endangered.

Oh, how convenient for someone.

[ConorMacNessa]

That was my thought as well - don't know how common they are in this area. Of course, who knows where that box of documents had been?



Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[showme_the_Glory]

Stomp on it, and get back to work!

Exactly.

[Fiji Hill]

The Endangered Species Act needs to be repealed. If a species is unfit to adapt to changing conditions, then it should be allowed to become extinct.

[dennisw]

This spider is so rare no one will miss if it gets wiped out. The endangered species act was designed to keep rare birds and mammals from extinction. Not insects

[CrazyIvan]

The only rare spyder worth preserving was built by Porsche.

[SledgeCS]

If the last previous sighting was 32 years ago, I am pretty sure they could not validly state "You stepped on the last remaining spider of that species."

I say stomp away, I remember all of the delayed projects around the preble's meadow jumping mouse.

[Edward Teach]

GET BACK, YOU EIGHT-LEGGED FREAKS!

[UCANSEE2]

We need to sprinkle a bunch of these spiders around D.C.

Or these.

[Bellflower]

Give me 15 mil and I will build it and it’s relatives a perfect little cave for them to live in.

[Ancesthntr]

I’m in San Antonio and heard a report about this yesterday. To add to the utter insanity of this, the report indicated that the spider was taken away to some lab and DISSECTED to prove what it was.

Yes, you read that correctly ... they killed an uber-rare spider in order to save it.

We definitely live in the bizzaro world. I really wish that Sam Kinison was still alive to go berzerk over this. I can hear him now...”HELLOOOOOO!!! The f’ing spider is DEEEEAAAAAD!! The stupid ba$tard$ DISSECTED it, and we still can’t build a $15 million highway because of a DEEEEAAAADDDDD F’ING SPIDER that no one even knew was alive until the day before???? Oh, Oh, OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!”

I have to laugh, because otherwise I’d cry about what we’ve become.

[Tuanedge]

Just show the little bastards who's on top of the food chain.

Can you deep fry a spider? Answer: Yes you can!

[familyop]

It’s not so rare. It lives in caves with the other blind creatures too often described as rare. I was a spelunker in my teens (hobby).

[Noob1999]

Maybe this spider likes the taste of cement!

Lets pour 12 inches of rebarred concrete on top of it’s nest and find out

[FroggyTheGremlim]

"If a species is unfit to adapt to changing conditions, then it should be allowed to become extinct."

Liberals are unfit.