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I don't yet know much about these fascinating spiders. They were identified by Rod Crawford, from the Burke Museum at the University of Washington. Here is what he had to say:
"...a native spider found only in the Pacific NW. It is not dangerous, but if it should happen to bite a person (unlikely) it is painful, about like a yellowjacket sting. The bite responds to over the counter sting remedies, and has no ill effects other than the 'ouch.' ... this is a forest spider which takes over the house-spider niche when the brown European house spiders aren't present."
"The present specimen is a mature male (note the enlarged pedipalps, which are the male sex organs). Males wander in search of females and that's why you find them wandering about. Females and immatures mostly stay on their webs." These are fairly large spiders. They are about 5/8" to 3/4" long, and they appear robust. I have seen these spiders inside and outside the house and garage. I found one who was missing a pedipalp, and was very emaciated. On October 11, 2000, I found a dead male curled up in the corner of my hallway. I have never seen a female, and I don't even know where they live or look like. While I was photographing the spider in image 2, I was standing on a rickety stool, and bracing myself against the roof, where he was sitting. I looked down at my camera for a moment, and when I looked up, he was crawling right towards my hand, and he was about 1 centimeter away. It certainly made the hairs stand up on the back of my head. |
