Misgolas gracilis (Arachnophobe Warning)

[RockOne]

...Otherwise known as the Brown Trapdoor Spider. Builds a burrow in the ground and puts a hiinged lid on top, made out of web and stones/soil. When the lid is closed the nest is hidden, but can be opened rapidly when prey sneaks past, not realising that the "trap' is there. The spiders body is around an inch long. These spiders are quite common in eastern Australia.
EOS300D + Kit Lens.

[tupe]

Wow! Nice shot!

[witchy]

These spiders are quite common in eastern Australia.

I hope it stays that way!

Great shot by the way.

[RockOne]

Thanks Tupe and Witchy.

I hope it stays that way!

I believe the WA versions are even bigger !!

[Leorooster]

Great capture. I am always fascinated by all this creatures. How close were you when you took the pic. Thanks for sharing

[RockOne]

Thanks Leorooster. I guess the photo was roughly at the minimum focus distance for the lens, so probably around 20cm or so.

[witchy]

Thanks Tupe and Witchy.


I believe the WA versions are even bigger !!

I hope you are joking!...we don't have trap doors here, do we?

It's bad enough with red backs and Huntsmans!

[PhotosGuy]

Good 'catch'! You must spend a lot of time with your nose next to the ground? ;-)

[cfcRebel]

Oh wow! Very nice shot! That is a cool spider. I don't believe i have seen one in real life.
Thanks for sharing.

[RockOne]

Thanks Frank and cfcRebel

Witchy, there are trapdoors in WA, but they don't ver get far away from their burrows so you probably don't see them much (especially if they are in the leaf litter of a forest).
http://www.austmus.gov.au/factSheets/rugose.htm

Not sure if you find these guys around your part of WA, but they'd sure make an interesting photo
http://www.thedailylink.com/australiantarantulas/species/stirlingi.html

[sparker1]

Nice shot, and very interesting description.

[Ballen Photo]

I enjoyed the photo as well as the info about it. (sneaky little bugger) ;)
Thanks for sharing. :D
-Bruce

[skade]

Ikk.. I have a spider phobia but I still have to look lol Dont think Ive ever seen one of these in W.A, but our huntsmans are big and ugly enough! Ive seen a wolf spider before that I swear was twice the size of my hand.. that really freaked me out!

[RockOne]

Thanks Stan, Bruce and Sandi.
Sandi, these spiders dont quite have the legspan of a huntsman, but they are thickset (not as much as Funnel-webs though - even though the two are often confused). Don't see too many wolf spiders around here, but I've had a huntsman run up my trouser leg...now thats a freaky experience :-), and not one I'm keen to repeat in a hurry !

[witchy]

Thanks Frank and cfcRebel

Witchy, there are trapdoors in WA, but they don't ver get far away from their burrows so you probably don't see them much (especially if they are in the leaf litter of a forest).
http://www.austmus.gov.au/factSheets/rugose.htm

Not sure if you find these guys around your part of WA, but they'd sure make an interesting photo
http://www.thedailylink.com/australiantarantulas/species/stirlingi.html

I read those links and some more..Appears the trapdoors are mainly down south in the forests and not often seen (Good!)...The tarantula appears to be up North?...Is that what they call the bird eating spider. I saw a documentary about them and they said they were mainly in Queensland. Anyway I think if I ever stumbled across a spider that was 14.5 cm long, I would severely panic..I am not very good with spiders!

[pradeep1]

Creepy little bugger.

[skade]

I've had a huntsman run up my trouser leg...now thats a freaky experience :-), and not one I'm keen to repeat in a hurry !

Ive seen a huntsman run over my ex's face lmao He was carrying wood out of the boot of my car and it run out of the wood and straight over his face!

Also........My cousin was driving along, about 2 years ago, and looked down and there was a huntsman sitting right on her chest! She panicked so much that she literally jumped out of the car while it was still going! Luckily she was just slowing down as she was at a round about, but she had 2 kids in the back seat! She jumped out, the car ran up onto the round about and no one was hurt! Lucky there was no traffic coming thru at the time or it could have been a different story!

[RockOne]

Thanks Pradeep. They are a bit creepy....better than funnel-webs though :-)...just !

Yes that tarantula is one of the bird eating spiders, but the main one, and the one that gives them that particular repuatation is one from Queensland called 'Selenotypus plumipes".

http://www.selenocosmia.com/plumipes.html

[RockOne]

A lot of huntsmen seem to end up in cars. As far as I know, the only fatality attributed to a huntsman is due to a collision caused in similar circumsatnces. They are just plain scary !!

[witchy]

A lot of huntsmen seem to end up in cars. As far as I know, the only fatality attributed to a huntsman is due to a collision caused in similar circumsatnces. They are just plain scary !!

That is so true. We have it happen several times every summer!

So far they have only ever been on the windscreen or side window but that's scarey enough. I used to live in Herne Hill and you get heaps of them there..I would get my house sprayed yearly because they were so bad!

Years ago I had one the size that Sandi has mentioned (bigger than a man's hand) it was huge. I had to close down the back rollerdoor at work and just as I started a huge Huntsman ran into the rollerdoor. I refused to close it and my boss (male!) told me to close it or else..He was too chicken to do it himself!..I refused again, he said fine you are fired if you don't..I said no probs, I quit, I walked out and went home. No way was I pulling down that rollerdoor. I turned up to work the next day like nothing had happened and nothing more about it was said.

My Father in law recently was bitten by one, it was in his shirt. He says it hurt like hell!

Also years ago I had a job working with dogs and a customer's Dobermann had been bitten by a Huntsman, it made the dog very sick for a while.

I hate everything about them!..Huge spider phobias here!

[RockOne]

Looks like there might be a few around. Interesting that the trapdoor expert in Australia is based at the University of WA !

http://www.deh.gov.au/cgi-bin/abrs/fauna/details.pl?pstrVol=MYGALOMORPHAE;pstrTaxa=45;pstrC hecklistMode=2

My Father in law recently was bitten by one, it was in his shirt. He says it hurt like hell!

I've read that the bite is quite painful, but I don't want to find out if its true or not !

[skade]

Your just trying to scare us aint ya RockOne lol I honestly never knew they were over here and have never seen one.

[RockOne]

Nah not trying to scare anyone.....just want to see a pic of one :-) !

[witchy]

Nah not trying to scare anyone.....just want to see a pic of one :-) !

It won't be by me!

[skade]

Lol Wont be from me either! Try searching google hehehehe

[witchy]

Lol Wont be from me either! Try searching google hehehehe

LOL!

[RockOne]

OK. I'll have to wait until Canon makes a 1200mmm Macro I guess :-).

[witchy]

OK. I'll have to wait until Canon makes a 1200mmm Macro I guess :-).

HHHHHHHHH but for me that would still be too close!..Did I mention my phobia LOL!

[RockOne]

Close...Not to mention expensive !!!. I think you mentioned your phobia once or twice :-).

[ssim]

Very interesting and well done photograph. Spiders are definitely not my thing.

[skade]

So how close did you get to that creepy thing RockOne?

[RockOne]

So how close did you get to that creepy thing RockOne?

About 20cm or so - the minimum focus distance of the Kit Lens.

[skade]

Yikes!!! I would have been worried about it running out at me! Which, incidently, would have put me into a hospital bed or a grave! lol

[RockOne]

Not a lot of danger of it doing any running. I took the photo last winter and he was completely frozen...but I don't think I'd have caught it if it weren't - it would have been back down its burrow too quick !