Thursday, 16 August 2012

Huge, scary spider in the neighborhood! Orb-weaver spider.

Read in Swedish: Aldrig sett något liknande - fruktansvärt stor hjulspindel!

I got a smaller chock yesterday when I happened to see this HUGE spider in his web, not far at all from our home here in Hersonissos, Crete! I had no idea it exists so big spiders in Greece.

Check it out!
The flowering plant is a planted Lantana camara.

The body is 4-5 cm! It belongs to the spider family Araneidae, Orb-weaver spider. They are said to be harmless.

I photographed it from the underside of the body as well and as you can see it has a pattern there of a death's head! His name is now Max Spider and I feel a little sorry for Max as he has lost one leg.

Have a wonderful day!

Other posts about spiders:
MONSTER spider...
Really grose spider! Huge!

7 comments:

John McLaren said...

Aquaworld Aquarium Hersonissos Crete It's a beautiful big orb web spider - we have several brought to us each year! Totally harmless, of course :)

Eva in Athens, Greece said...

Thankyou John! I thought so, but wasn't sure.
Have a nice weekend!

Naomi said...

oooh nice photos! It IS big!! It's crazy, not seen one like that before. wouldn't like to see that roam around the house!!

Happy New Year to you too!!
Naomi x

Eva Inathens-Greece said...

I have to tell you though that the next day it was a lot smaller..., so now there are probably many more of the same kind in that bush...!
Thanks for visiting!

Joanna said...

I would not like to meet one of these...

The Expat Wife said...

OMG! that is scary

Eva Inathens-Greece said...

@Joanna
:) I can't believe I deared to go so close to it...!

@The Expat Wife
That's exactly what I said and I kept saying it loud to myself many times during my drive to Heraklion afterwards...! I couldn't believe what I just had seen!